As a Ninja
by Iamwhononofyouare
Summary: Getting transported- reincarnated if you will- into the Naruto-verse, as an Uchiha no less, was... unexpected. But with a good teacher, a new mind-set, and some intelligence, succeeding isn't impossible, is it? But then again, what even is success?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

**Important: Please review after you finish the chapter.**

Chapter One: Gary Stue, or not

I was never quite sure how exactly it happened, but before I knew it my life as a normalish fifteen year old was gone and the sweet oblivion of being blind for months set in.

As I tried to move my body I realized that it was not truly my own, starting with the fact that I could feel my rather underdeveloped fingers, months later I was greeted with air...

The rest was a blur as I began wailing and passed out shortly. The following morning I realized with great fascination that yesterday had been my _birthday._

And so I smiled a cute babyish smile and then I was struck with a terrifying thought, I did not know the language of these people, and they did not know mine.

Of course I never considered that my tiny little brain was well suited for learning new languages. However when a day later that thought came I was pleasantly surprised that it was a language I had the minutest knowledge of, Japanese.

Of course this left the question of where and more importantly when I was; I had noticed that the clothing was far from modern.

Naturally I also recognized the most significant problem I was faced with, reading. Well, that could wait I supposed, I was very tired.

In my previous life, as I would now call it, I had never thought myself physically powerful, beyond a few pride filled moments where I bested _wimps_ my age. Still, I certainly didn't know anything combat related, something I had every intention of rectifying. After all, fighting was cool, wasn't it?

So in light of my new found enthusiasm, I rolled over in my little crib and began a frightfully pitiful attempt at a push-up. I looked at my fat filled pudgy arms in unhidden contempt as I began to think of a way out of this dilemma.

I realized with growing frustration that I had no way but to wait.

**1 Year Later**

Let it never be said that I cannot learn a new language, for I have proven the naysayers wrong! Idiocy aside, I felt somewhat proud of my new-found ability to communicate. I had learned, by now, that Haha was Haha and Chichi was Chichi, I had not yet discovered what their given names were.

My own name, I had known for months now, was Nanashi, or as Haha put it, Nana-chan. Though it sounded rather girlish if I had to say, Nana-chan, not Nanashi.

Recently I had also discovered I had an older brother with whom I shared a large age gap. His name was ... nii-san. Rather embarrassingly I did not have knowledge of _his_ given name either.

Well, names and family aside, I had made excellent headway in my private push-up contest, as my rather impressive four can attest to. Of course, I was shooting for at least 300 in ten years or so, admittedly, I was rather incapable of pressuring myself to such an extent, so I hoped that my family would goad me on, well, I did now. Doubtlessly if they did, it would irk my less than saintly temper.

My vocabulary was still woefully limited but I could speak now, somewhat.

I was rather eager to begin eating solid food, albeit the awkwardness of the current situation was limited, and it did much to convince me that I had a loving mother, but still, eating was eating. I must say I am curious as to what real Japanese food tastes like.

**1 year later, 3 days after my second Birthday**

I have now been officially weaned, that is, I now eat only real food, such as rice and chicken.

Progress with my exercises has been woefully slow, but I have made sure to stretch to my fullest extent and beyond every day that I may grow up limber. I've also taken up sit-ups and jumping.

My world is still quite small as I have not yet ventured out into the wide expanse of green that is the outdoors without being held in someone's arms. Visitors have been very few, aside from my brother, mother, and father, only a few older looking men who came to do naught more than look at me.

My growth has been slow, but I expect that within two years my size will have at least doubled.

I have not yet discovered a mirror so all I know about myself is the size of my appendages and the color of my hair, which is dark, as opposed to my blonde hair in my previous life.

Father is a stern man if I were to describe him; his hair is a dark brown, slightly lighter than my own. His height is no taller than 5' 9" but he could be a couple inches shorter, my new size makes measurement difficult.

Mother is nice, a kind voice of unwavering support to my whole family.

Nii-san takes after father, but he is more proud, I get the impression that my Chichi was like him but then something happened that humbled him somewhat. In any case my brother's temper is shorter than fathers, although neither often gets angry in my presence.

My life was simple at this point, little more to do then explore the expansive house, exercise, eat and sleep.

The reason for my main disappointment was the lack of reading material I had discovered, not, I suppose that I could read it even if I did, which brings up an excellent point. Ask and you shall receive.

And so I found my mother.

"Haha, can you teach me to read?" I asked boldly.

She smiled, "Of course Nana-chan, let's go find a book I can teach you with."

I never was an expert on baby development, but if wanting to read at two is not normal, she was not the one to tell me. Perhaps they expected such things from their children? Or was nii-san a genius perhaps? Well, I am unconcerned.

Being taught to read a new language that I did not yet even speak wholly well was a daunting, if not exciting, task. Over the months that I learned to read I constantly dreaded writing these letters... I mean really, five strokes of a brush? However did the people here find the patience for it? Nevertheless literacy is important, if you can't read you can get cheated pretty easily.

**3 years and 1 month old**

"Nanashi, it is time to begin your training." My father said.

"In what?" Was my impudent reply.

"The shinobi way, an Uchiha who cannot fight is not an Uchiha at all." He replied without hesitation.

I forced myself to calm down, over three years I may have forgotten certain things, but, if someone mentions something I recognize I'll know it. So I was an Uchiha? That explained nii-sans and Chichi's dark eyes.

"Indeed." Was my short reply, I could not say anything more wordy. For what if the massacre was tonight, or even in the next few years? My will to live was stronger than ever, Itachi would not kill me.

I followed father to one of the Uchiha clan's training grounds. A wide open area with six, eight foot tall, wooden poles a couple hundred feet away.

"Attack me." He said simply.

I thought hard for a bit, and then I lay down in the short grass.

"Nanashi." He said warningly.

"Attack me." He ordered with a hint of anger, obviously he valued obedience. When I refused to answer he began calmly walking toward me.

I swallowed my palpable fear and waited till he was directly above me. Then as fast as my young muscles could I launched up from the ground, throwing a flimsy punch at the groin as I did so. Father easily caught my hand almost a foot before it should have impacted. Well... not unexpected.

I looked up wordlessly at my father's face, he smiled.

"Good. Continue." He said, not releasing my arm.

In less than a second I had my plan, as fast as I could I grabbed his hand with my much smaller one and swung my legs at his knee. Still perfectly balanced despite my full weight on his outstretched arm, he released my arm and shook me of, causing me to land awkwardly on my bottom.

I somersaulted backwards and then took my best rendition of a boxer stance. Then I opened my left fist and made the come here motion.

Faster than I could react he grabbed my arms, twisted them behind my back and sent me sprawling face first into the dirt.

"Ow." Was what I matter of factly said.

"You are weak." He said.

"I'm three, and you're what?" I asked, "A ninja." I answered for him.

"Indeed, you could not win from the very start."

"It was a test, winning isn't the goal." I respectfully retorted.

"The point was to show you your own weakness, tell me Nanashi, do you like losing?" He inquired seriously.

"No." I answered calmly.

"Good, I'll show you the scrolls you can access."

I silently nodded, mentally noting that I _really_ needed to read up on chakra.

I followed father into a small library that was, classically, hiding behind the tapestry.

"Until you can use Katon: Great Fireball, this will be the limit of your studies." He informed me, and then exited.

There was a large window on the far wall that provided light. There were several books and numerous scrolls in this room. I am surprised that father let me into the library so early, perhaps he knows of my like for reading?

Well, for now I needed something useful. I looked first at the books, _How to Train Fire Chakra, _ was useless for now. _Pre-academy Chakra _sounded basic enough, but let's keep looking. _Nin, Tai or Gen, How to know what to Focus on_ seemed somewhat over my head and also slightly like a 'if you're like this Genjutsu is all you'll ever excel in' type. _History of the Uchiha Clan_ sounded somewhat interesting for later perusal, the rest were history or more advanced material.

So _Pre-academy Chakra _it was.

_No one has ever truly discovered what chakra is, however for many years it has been understood, yet unproven, that chakra is made up of a person's physical energy, affected by their physical size and muscle mass. The other side of chakra is the spiritual side, affected by a person's strength of will_ _and mental prowess._

_Accessing chakra for the first time can be exhausting or completely harmless. Don't worry about it as unless it causes pain you probably don't have a problem. The first step is concentration,_ _to find something that you have only had described to you can be _difficult_. You'll want to find somewhere that doesn't have too many loud sounds for this._

Well, it was helpful I guess. I assumed my amateurish meditation pose and sought my energy. If Naruto fan fictions were to be believed I should try to feel deep down and then pull. But I had a different understanding, chakra was everywhere... it was energy within one's self, that could be directed and controlled with a mere thought. And so I gathered up my energy and then sent it down my arm and into my hand where it would be expelled. I wriggled my now slightly glowing fingers in absolute amazement, call it magic, call it chakra, but it was real!

The glow faded as I had stopped directing chakra to my hand, I now realized that my hand was slightly tingling, less severe than if it had fallen asleep, but still, interesting. I was marginally more tired now as well, but still I felt up for more. Once again I gathered up my chakra, then sent it down my other hand, telling _my _energy to keep running to my left hand I tested something.

To my intense disappointment my hand was no stronger than before. I looked at the book, remembered my spot and left the little library.

I stretched my arms out and then reached down and put my palms to the ground before kicking as high as I could. I was surprised to learn how much time had passed, as well as by the wonderful smell from the kitchen. Sukiyaki was truly a wonderful dish.

"Haha." I greeted my mother.

"Nii-san, Chichi."

"Otouto." My elder brother replied shortly.

"Nanashi, I trust you found something useful to read?"

"Hai." I answered, and then showed my new-found glowing hand off for inspection.

"Hn." Was his reply, well good to know you're an Uchiha for real huh?

My nii-san simply watched with interest as I stopped channeling my chakra.

After eating, my young body was read to rest and so I retreated to my crib, only to find it gone and in its place a futon. So, training begins and you get a bed, mat, whatever? I'm not complaining.

Bright and early my father woke me, watching as I went through my short wake-up stretches. When I finished he said "Come" and so I followed him out to the training grounds.

"As you know Nanashi, I am a busy man. As much as I regret not being able to personally teach you, I simply to do not have the time. As such, most of what you learn will be from reading and..." He gestured to a brown-haired Uchiha who had a three-tomoe sharingan spinning. The man was slightly taller than my father and had a respectably toned appearance.

"This is Uchiha Hiroshi; you will call him Hiroshi-sensei and do as he says." Fathers tone left no room for question.

I inclined my head very slightly, "Hiroshi-sensei, please take care of me."

"A pleasure to meet you, Nanashi-kun."

Chichi turned and succinctly left us alone.

I've never been much of a people person, keeping to my family in this life and the last.

Hiroshi waited until father had gone beyond Ninja hearing distance before turning to me in earnest.

"First we'll see just how capable you are." He then instructed me to do push-ups, followed by sit-ups.

"Good." His tone gave nothing away.

"I understand that you have already accessed your chakra, as such we'll begin with the Leaf Sticking Exercise. The goal is to stick a leaf to any location on your body." He walked a few hundred feet and procured a number of leaves before returning with the Shunshin.

"Too little and the leaves will fall off, too much and you'll either destroy them or blow them away."

The leaves had already been deposited on the ground in front of me. I picked one up, put it on my hand, and then channeled chakra to said hand. To my frustration when I turned my hand over the leaf fell right off.

Picking it back up I tried to tell my chakra to grab the leaf, with limited success. However it held, if only for a moment, I suppose there is a reason this is a control exercise.

"When you complete that exercise, come and let me know, I live two houses to the left of your own."

Well, the hands off training method works fine for me too. I spent hours before I could consistently hold a single leaf to my hand. I then moved my stiff body until I broke into a run going in circles in the short grass of the training ground.

Now the thing to do was, of course, to stick multiple leaves at once. Disappointingly I turned hungry long before I could complete this little challenge. I walked home rather sluggishly, my tiny body worn out from chakra depletion.

I eagerly ate the meal mother made for me, and though it was only afternoon I retired to bed.

Early in the morning I woke up, well rested from plentiful hours of sleep. One curious thing about Naruto-verse was the fact that fridges existed. I, however, did not complain since it gave us the ability to keep food relatively fresh for far longer than would otherwise be possible.

Snacking on what I could find, I began my morning exercise. After travelling twice to the training ground I was confident I could do it alone. And so I did.

Picking up the leaves where I had left off I again tried, this time focusing on the concept of adhesion I succeeded, in due time, in sticking two leaves to one hand, but not one leaf to each hand.

In a week I had sufficiently trained in the exercise to stick a leaf to my bare foot. I considered this enough to say I had completed the exercise, since the bottom of the foot is considered the hardest place to channel chakra.

I went to the house two houses to the left of my own.

I knocked twice, "Hiroshi-sensei, I'm done." I informed.

The light-brown haired Uchiha answered the door shortly, "Let's see it."

It was fortunate I had expected this and brought leaves. I removed my sandal and stuck a leaf to my foot, then held it up for inspection.

Hiroshi nodded, "I see you are done."

I looked at him expectantly.

"Put your sandal on; meet me at the same training ground we first met at." So saying he Shunshined into the distance.

"I need that jutsu." I said as I tied my sandal back on, running all the way to the training ground.

"Now we'll go through the Kata's for the interceptor style."

He took the first stance which I copied to the best of my ability. He walked over, correcting discrepancies in my stance. Doing the same we went over all the Kata's slowly once we had done each three times over Hiroshi looked at his watch.

"Lunch time, kid. Run along."

"You aren't eating with us?"

"Kid, I haven't eaten with anyone but myself for years."

"Then you should come, I'm sure mother won't mind."

He smiled, "Whatever kid, let's get going."

I smiled back as we walked together to my place; he was limiting his own speed in deference to me. I looked ruefully down at my tiny legs, willing them to grow with zero success.

"If you ever want to practice your Kata's but can't remember what they all are..."

"Yes?"

"You should be able to find the scroll for it in your little library." So either he knows about it some other way or father trusts him enough to tell him, not that anything sensitive is in there.

"Arigato." Was my brief reply.

**Three months later**

"Come." My sensei told me.

And so I did, with all the ferocity and cunning in my almost three and a half year old body. The interceptor style is really much weaker without the Sharingan, not that I could beat a full grown man with it in any case.

I had been sparring with Hiroshi-sensei for two months now and I am proud to be his student. Father has checked on my progress twice, making no negative comment so I can only assume approval.

My tolerance to pain has increased, not surprising, given that I go home with bruises every day. Today is the day I'll start reading _How to Train Fire Chakra _having already completed the somewhat thin _Pre-academy Chakra_.

I like to think that I've made good progress in my clan's taijutsu style but I know I have a very long way to go. Being humble is something I try to do every day.

I've found the ignorance of my current time frustrating, to say the least. Itachi hasn't been mentioned nor are we all dead yet, so I'll hope for the best.

Uninterestingly enough my dislike for tomatoes has carried over from my increasingly insignificant first life.

I suppressed a yell as I lunged at Hiroshi-sensei with my right hand, he deflected it with the back of his own and I quickly disengaged, knowing that a straight from his left hand was coming next.

As soon as he had committed to his counter I reengaged with a sweeping left kick that left me completely open. As was soon evidenced by the fact that he stuck his right leg under my kicking left and knocked me completely off balance.

I quickly did a backwards vault, kicking out with my legs to keep my opponent at bay. Hiroshi-sensei dived in after, plowing through my guard and smashing his shoulder against my chest.

I feel onto my rear rubbing, the spot that would no doubt turn dark with an angry bruise.

He offered his hand, I accepted and we began to go home for dinner.

"You still hold back a ridiculous amount." I informed him.

"If I didn't, you'd be dead."

"True" Was the only answer I could muster.

After eating with us Hiroshi-sensei left to his own place.

I brought my dirty plate to the kitchen along with my brother. As I handed him mine and he set both of ours in the sink I asked a question. It was hard to believe I didn't know this already.

"Nii-san, what's your given name?"

He raised his brow, "Fugaku, otouto, Fugaku."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Only one owns Naruto, and's he's Japanese, I'm American so guess what this disclaimer is saying.**

Chapter 2

I hastily formulated a reasonable reply, "Then I look forward to the day we spar, Fugaku-nii."

Nii-san simply smiled back at me, an anticipatory smirk.

By now Nii-san had finished setting our plates down. So I went to the little library that was my second home, too lost in thought to read.

If Nii-san was Fugaku then I had a while before Itachi was even born. Heck, the coup could be completely prevented by me, since Fugaku was the instigator.

I smiled, for now I'd focus on getting stronger, then when the 3rd Shinobi War broke out I wouldn't die right away. It should start sometime in the next eight to fifteen years.

Or maybe I'm screwed up; timelines in Naruto have never been my strong point. I mean seriously, for all I know the first shinobi war ended only a few years ago, but I doubt it.

Well, I can process this later but for now…

I picked _How to Train Fire Chakra_ off of the shelf and got comfortable.

_Training any kind of elemental chakra can be extremely dangerous and should not be attempted without sufficient chakra._

Well that's encouraging; if my knowledge is correct chakra pools are very limited before five or six years of age.

_Fire chakra has been called the most dangerous element to train with good reason. If you do not use proper care you risk incineration, burnt insides, or even literal heart burn._

And virtually every Uchiha does it, come on how hard can it be? Still it's best if I ask Chichi or Hiroshi-sensei before I actually attempt this.

_Fire Techniques often use the tiger hand seal._

Aha! I knew I was forgetting something: hand seals. They look like a real pain to remember; hopefully Hiroshi-sensei will teach me.

_Fire chakra is formulated in the belly by concentrating chakra and then releasing it as pure energy. A slight nudge is enough to change the element to fire if you have an affinity. _

Actually, that makes a lot of sense. Since fire is merely the expression of energy released in a chemical reaction; it isn't hard to think that if we say chakra is energy. In fact, producing fire chakra should be incredibly easy. Which I suppose is the danger; since it's so easy to make it it's also easy to make too much. Something like that should be how it is.

But that brings up the question, why isn't every ninja from here to Iwa spamming fire techniques?

Maybe fire chakra is a really affinity dependent element? Or are affinities so very important? It would be nice to think that with only slightly more trouble you can use a technique you have no original affinity for. But then, why do only geniuses like Kakashi and the Sandaime use jutsu like that?

That's why developing new affinities is a task that can take years; if you have no original talent, getting over the first hump of making even the tiniest amount of a new element can be close to impossible.

If that's the case, I hope I have two affinities. It's also really bad if I have no fire affinity at all, if I can't do Katon: Great Fireball I'm screwed. Reason being, the Uchiha use it as a coming of age deal, if I can't do it, I'm a kid until I can.

Well, I probably won't be using elemental jutsu until I'm five or so anyway, still, this is all rather intriguing.

_If you don't have an affinity, please buy my other book_ How to Develop a New Affinity.

Really man? Who even wrote this? Doesn't say, did Father get rid of the author page?

Anyway, this book has been interesting… wait I only read like eight sentences, all the rest came from my own mind. Ignoring that, I need to read up on hand seals and start practicing.

Luckily, there was a scroll in the room about the twelve common hand seals. It described things in a little _too_ much detail, but fortunately there were pictures.

After practicing hand seals for half an hour I felt somewhat exhausted, mentally. So I went to my bed and lied down.

Thinking while not being able to get to sleep is something I've done as long as I can remember, this time my thoughts were of family.

Could I really stop the massacre? The coup plot even? It didn't matter, I had to. I would.

I'd never even gotten past the chunin exams in cannon Naruto, all my other knowledge came from fan fictions and my sister. My real knowledge of the future was limited at best. In some ways that was good. I could tell myself I couldn't stop some things, it would be true, I know.

It's actually fortunate that I know virtually nothing about my brother from my previous life, prejudice is an awful thing.

**XXXX**

I woke up the next day, feeling somewhat less anxious than ever before. I guess knowing that Itachi and Obito weren't going to kill us all anytime soon got a load off my chest.

After my morning routine I had breakfast, heading out immediately to the training ground after a brief goodbye to my mother.

Hiroshi-sensei was waiting for me there so I greeted him, "Good morning Hiroshi-sensei!" I called.

"Good morning Nanashi-kun."

"Today we'll learn some more advanced taijutsu moves of the interceptor style."

I resisted the urge to wail, it got even more complicated? There were already dozens of kata's to remember.

"This is more focused on being perceptive, whereas what you've been learning before now is all based on repetition."

"So, rather than a bunch of kata's to remember this is more like common kata's and how to counter them?"

"Mostly, other than the basic academy style that almost every country teaches there are hundreds of taijutsu styles. So this is more on countering common moves and then not getting blindsided by a strange style."

I see, so that's how it is hundreds of moves out there; it really is a dangerous world.

"Now Nanashi-kun, what must we always remember?"

"What you can achieve is based on speed; its effectiveness is based on strength." I answered without hesitation.

"Exactly, now, why do the Uchiha focus somewhat more on speed?"

"To take full advantage of the Sharingan."

"Good, let's begin."

Hiroshi-sensei is a really good teacher and someone I admire, he also is very flexible. If I have a hard time on something we focus in on that, if something is easy we spend only token time on it.

After practicing sparring and being lectured for hours I finally asked the question.

"When am I going to learn jutsu, or even hand seals?" I'll be the first to admit that making a tsunami out of a puddle or a fireball is very cool; I'm also intrigued by the concept of genjutsu.

"Jutsu will wait until you actually have enough chakra, hand seals… well you wouldn't be asking if you hadn't already looked it up."

"Yes." Hiroshi-sensei knows me so well, it's quite refreshing. But for now I'm very hungry so I continued, "Let's go eat."

He smiled, "Yes, lets."

**Four Months later**

As I grow older time seems to go both far faster, and at the same time, a snail's pace. I can now do twenty-nine push-ups so I feel alright about that. My Taijutsu lessons have come along nicely; however I find quickly switching between hand seals extremely disconcerting.

Hiroshi-sensei eats with us every day now; and Father has expressed his approval of my progress, mildly.

Chakra lessons are non-existent at this point, being put on hold until I actually have enough to do anything with it. I have not read anymore in _How to Train Fire Chakra _my conclusions satisfying my present curiosity.

During the meal I asked, "Nii-san, how is your progress?"

"The academy is boring, but necessary; the material is useless other than the history and civilian studies."

What he actually meant is probably more like, "Those stupid instructors are dumbing things down too much."

But on another note this is really interesting, Fugaku likes math? Or even history? Don't all kids hate this stuff? Admittedly, at his age in my past life math was my favorite subject with English being my least liked.

I wonder, do they teach grammar in the academy? Seems like a waste of time for a profession that has an average life span of twenty-five or so.

Which brings up another question that's been plaguing me; are you smarter if you have more chakra? Or in other words: "Will a Sannin always be smarter than a civilian?" it seems so.

Intellectual questions aside, life in a Ninja Clan is interesting. My family is suitably rich though we live a relatively simple life. As may have been obvious if I looked closer sooner, my father is clan head.

This brings up a good point as to why I am being nurtured to such a degree; I am the back-up clan heir. Father is not above thinking that Nii-san could die in the line of duty, many do.

Turning my attention to my father I asked, "Chichi, how strong are you?"

"Strong enough, Nanashi, strong enough."

"That's good. Just remember not to die out there." I replied seriously.

"Cheeky brat, we go easy on you because you're young, but maybe I should show you why I'm a jonin." He retorted good naturedly. I truly value these moments, they are precious to me.

"Please take care of me."

Before he could even begin to answer I cut in, "But you already do, Father, you already do."

"Hn." He grunted back.

"Mother, thank you for the meal." Fugaku-nii and I said simultaneously as we got up and brought our plates to the sink. I wonder, are dishwashers not a thing here? Naruto technology is confusing that way.

After finishing the little ritual, I went with Hiroshi-sensei back to the training grounds.

He rapidly gathered up some leaves and came back.

"For the rest of our training time take off your shirt and clothe your upper body with these leaves, if you begin to feel exhausted, stop and let me know." Well, chakra exhaustion is the bane of ninja everywhere, putting them out of action for almost a week, and if it's really severe, a month.

I only succeeded in covering my frontal abs with leaves before I stopped for the reason given. However, Hiroshi-sensei didn't seem too disappointed.

I went to bed, or futon I guess, almost immediately after supper. The beds here are actually more comfortable than one might expect.

Tomorrow I'll start reading _History of The Uchiha Clan _hopefully I can gain some insight into the period before hidden villages.

**Two Weeks Later **

The book, though frustratingly difficult to put in chronological order went back almost as far as I had hoped. Unfortunately, it gave little more insight than a family tree.

Apparently I was descended from one of Madara's cousins. Officially, Madara had no wife and no children, but I wonder. I guess in the grand scheme of things it's insignificant.

The rivalry between the Uchiha and Senju clans was very real, to the extent that if one saw the other they'd draw swords without warning. Neither side was above using whatever tricks and acts of terrorism to win.

It was a rude awakening; the life of a shinobi was truly a jaded one. Unfortunately I couldn't find the reason for the conflict, beyond the Rikudo Sennin's eldest son's jealousy.

**Two Months Later**

I'm only a couple weeks from four years old now, training has been taken up a notch; with fractured bones occurring every once in a while.

Fugaku hasn't brought a girlfriend over yet, so I'm guessing he's the sort to marry late. Hiroshi-sensei confided to me that he has no close family, the Clan and Konoha being all he had.

I'm not the patient sort, so I hope my chakra expands early, as previously mentioned, jutsu are cool. But, more morbidly, they can easily end a life; indeed, many were invented with that purpose.

I stand by this philosophy, "Whatever power can be used for good can be used for evil, and vice versa." But what is good? In this life what is evil? A stupid question, I have a conscience after all.

Today is the day of my first spar with Nii-san; hopefully he'll go easy on me. As I finished tying on my sandals, I wondered just how strong he was.

Father, Mother, Hiroshi-sensei and Fugaku were already present. Thirty feet in front of Father we faced each other, a short five meters apart.

Father eyed us both and then, almost too fast for my eyes to follow, jumped forward and raised his arm, "Hajime!" he called.

My stance already taken, I let Fugaku-nii make the first move, his much larger body covering the distance quickly. He began with a standard punch that I easily ducked under, my small size being advantageous.

I countered with my left leg, shifting my right into an adaptable position. Unfortunately this resulted in my kick being too slow to actually connect, Nii-san turning away as my leg swept past, he leaped at me before the movement of my leg stopped, forcing me either to block or perform a backwards leap kick. I chose the latter.

Landing imperfectly after my stunt I was surprised to feel a shooting pain in my back. I stumbled forward; I should have seen that coming. I turned around before Fugaku could follow up lashing out with my right arm. To my dismay my arm was too short and Nii-san easily deflected it. My left fist already in motion I jumped back to avoid the pain that would follow if I continued.

Nii-san attacked quickly with a tackle I was to slow to avoid, to weak and light I quickly succumbed and fell down, trying to use my legs to throw him off. He was too skilled to allow it and held, knowing struggling was useless, I gave up.

"I give up, Nii-san wins." The fight had been decided too quickly; but facts were facts.

"Good job, Fugaku." Father praised, I agreed, he won in less than seven moves.

"I enjoyed it." I told my brother.

"You'll improve." He answered with a small smile.

"And so shall you, I look forward to it."

"Very good, let's return." Father interrupted.

Nii-san and I both nodded and followed chichi back to the house.

"How did I do Hiroshi-sensei?" I asked on the way.

"You did well; however, there is much room for improvement."

"I agree; I look forward to prospering under your tutelage."

"That's good then." He allowed himself a small grin as I did the same.

**One Year Later**

My chakra has expanded; and, now that I've adjusted, Father will teach me the fireball technique. I look forward to using my very first elemental jutsu.

"Nanashi, I understand you've already gone over basic fire training with Hiroshi-san."

"Yes, Father." While at home Father was a friendly man, in the field he was nothing but professional. And he expected no less from me.

He then went through the hand seals, Snake, Tiger, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger, and brought his fingers to his lips, making a ring with his forefinger and thumb. He then spat out a large fireball that obliterated two of the dummies and left most of the others singed.

"I assume you saw the hand seals. This technique is rather simple, just imagine your chakra as fire then blow it out at a constant rate, or, launch it all at once like I did."

"As with all elemental techniques, use great care, you can obliterate your own self from the inside if you mess up." He also should mention that this doesn't happen to people usually unless they're trying to make a variation of the jutsu. Nevertheless, I don't want any burns so I'll be carefull.

"Remember to coat your throat with chakra so that the technique doesn't go out of place or burn your esophagus." Ah yes, careless youngsters are the number one cause of death.

"Yes, Father." Snake, Tiger, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger…blow.

A wave of warm air blew from my puckered lips. Although expecting it to work on the first try was a little wishful.

"Good, use more chakra. This technique will take almost all you have." Well, being complimented on such a failure is surprising.

I spent too much of my chakra trying to figure the thing out; so we had to go inside for the day.

Concentrating chakra in the belly… and then expelling it as energy turned into fire. But what if I neglected to change it to fire? A weaker technique, if we use Rasenshuriken as an example.

I wonder what would happen if I converted the chakra for the Great Fireball to say… lightning instead. Best I don't try until I can ask someone who's done it about trying such things.

Here's a cool thought, if Tobirama can take humidity and make it into water techniques, can I use regular fire to do my bidding? I don't think so, water works differently from fire, whereas with fire you can make it out of your own chakra(energy) with water you need an actual source of physical water.

Which is why chakra is considered an energy, it can to made to combust rather easily; but, with something like water all it can do is shape preexisting water sources.

So if I had to say, lightning and fire chakra are the easiest to create but water, wind, and earth need physical manifestations to shape. Fortunately for users of the two latter, air and dirt is almost everywhere.

If I'm right… nothing major, but, I'll have a greater understanding of elemental techniques, which is never bad. I went through the hand seals a couple times and then made my way to supper. Sukiyaki, mom is so nice.

I noted with slight surprise that Fugaku had a fore-head protecter.

"How long has Nii-san been a genin?" I asked my older brother.

"A couple days." He answered.

"Why didn't you tell me, I'd have prepared something for you by now."

"Which is precisely why I didn't." Ohh, how thoughtful of you Nii-san.

"Hn." I said with a nod.

"Itadakimasu!" I picked up my chopsticks and began eating. I'm tall enough now to put my plate in the sink on my own but I still let Fugaku do it for me. Being young has some perks.

The next day Father and I went out to the training ground, I noted with interest that the poles had been replaced. I suppose some Uchiha have the less than glorious job of replacing those.

"Watch once more." Father instructed, he launched the fireball again.

I carefully watched his every move but was unable to determine what my own failing was.

Perhaps if it didn't change the nature of the chakra to fire before I expelled it? I puffed my cheeks, layering them with protective chakra, as I brought the chakra up through my throat I compressed it, and then changed it to an inferno, before quickly launching whatever heat ball I had produced.

I didn't risk putting my fingers up, merely haphazardly spitting my very first fireball. It impacted a few feet away, causing me to grin at the destruction.

Father looked on, impossibly hard to read.

"It was small imperfect and un-aimed, but with practice you will succeed. You seem alright to go again, try once more."

I repeated the technique, rearing back before blowing this time; I then expelled a less wild version of the technique. Aiming through my fingers this time, I shot the fireball at the poles that acted as dummies, incinerating one.

It should be mentioned that masters of this technique cut down on the hand seals and forego the rather elementary aiming through the finger ring.

"It is better if we don't push things, tomorrow we'll go over this again. After that, you'll find your library has more useful and advanced scrolls and books."

"Thank you very much, Father."

"It's no trouble; as long as you are competent I'm more than happy to pass on my knowledge."

Interesting he calls it 'passing on his knowledge' not 'teaching me' it contains subtle connotations. Or am I overthinking?

Well, today has been quite good, learning my first jutsu and all.

Other than that, it seems that we have plenty of time before lunch, good thing I brought my kunai.

These kunai were a gift from Hiroshi-sensei for my fourth birthday, so I've owned them for close to a year. However - I take good care of them - they are still plenty sharp.

Much to my consternation the Second Shinobi World War ended a short few months ago. My timeline for Naruto was never set in stone but this is surprising. Fortunately this means that I won't be going to the battle front any time soon.

Curiously enough a familiar name popped up recently.

The White Fang of Konoha: Hatake Sakumo. He's a young and talented man at this point; still growing in power, but strong enough that enemies below jonin shake in fear.

I threw my kunai from forty-five feet, none of them totally missing but quite a few just grazed the pole. Father gave a few words about my throwing stance before leaving to go work. He is a truly busy man, what with being the head of Konoha's military police force.

The Uchiha Police, as they were commonly referred to, had duties ranging from settling violent disputes between shinobi, keeping crowds at bay during major events, and even hunting missing nin. While the ANBU took up the responsibility of hunting anyone A-rank or higher, the Uchiha brought in lower ranking missing nin.

On a related note, Konoha's desertion rate was the lowest of the five great hidden villages.

Lunch time rolled around in due time, picking up my kunai once again I brought them all with me as I returned. Washing myself quickly so that I would look respectable for the meal I sat down in seiza at the Japanese table.

Mother once again cooked an excellent meal, but a meal is boring without conversation.

"Nii-san; who is your jonin-sensei?"

"Hisakawa Akiyoshi."

Nobody I knew then.

"Are your teammates any good?"

"They are academy graduates."

In other words, civilians with no extra-curricular skills.

Well, I hope Nii-san does really well. It's good to have strong family.

After practicing the Great Fireball technique with Father the next day; I made my way to the library. The amount of scrolls had increased almost ten-fold and the number of books had also grown.

Man, clan children had seriously two legs up on everyone else, eh? The first to find would of course be the 'academy three' the bunshin actually may have been the most useful of them, despite popular belief.

Still, we'll start with the henge; it being the easiest, probably. I rummaged through the scrolls until I found the one I sought, opening it and placing a paperweight so that it would not roll back up.

Well, there is a reason students take months to learn these, was my first thought.

The henge worked by putting a layer of chakra over oneself and then giving it color through imagination. Hence the reason it was hard to transform into things smaller than oneself.

If you put in more chakra the technique become both more solid, withstanding even punches, and more chakra intensive causing little ones to faint. This explains why academy students, sans Naruto, would have their transformation broken by naught more than a finger flick.

The main things with henge are 1: chakra cost, 2: imagination, and 3: solidity. Overall while it could be really useful it was simply impracticable in so many situations.

Or am I wrong; is it just as simple as the scroll says? A slightly chakra high chakra cost and constant mental concentration? It seems too easy, Dog, Boar, Ram, and "Henge!"

I focused on the appearance of Fugaku and in a puff of smoke there I stood, now as Fugaku. I immediately began noticing discrepancies, so this is the real challenge. Its great training, as ninja who want to succeed in this technique will inevitably become more observant.

Well, if that's how it is then I am up to the challenge.

I studied one of my kunai carefully and then henged into it. From my position as a kunai I looked at the basis for my appearance, regrettably, I could not see all of myself.

As I attempted to look closer the henge broke, so that's how it is, henge really does need some serious focus, I'll practice it by transforming into Nii-san as I read in here.

To say that Fugaku was uncomfortable under my scrutinizing gaze the next day would be an understatement of grave proportions. Finally he broke and asked me in ill-concealed anger.

"Is there something wrong with me?"

"No, I'm just studying for the henge."

"Oh."

I am surprised he accepted that explanation so easily. Could it be that Nii-san also did this to someone? How unexpected.

"Was it a girl?" I asked with a smile.

"What?" He looked up from the scroll he was reading in honest bewilderment.

"The one you studied for the henge, was it a girl?"

"He…ck no." Wow, refraining from using bad words in front of me, I'm proud of you Nii-san.

"You do realize you just put the start of one bad word with the end of another don't you?"

"Stop teasing me, Nanashi!"

"Aww, little Fugaku has a temper problem." I said in the little kiddy voice with a pitying face.

"Ugh, fine I do." He muttered, annoyed.

I gave him a thumbs-up, "You're learning Nii-san!" and ran off.

To explain, what he is learning is that the best way to deal with teasing is to agree with it. For example if someone says, "You're an idiot." If you say "Am not!" really angrily you'll get nowhere, but if you say "I really am." They'll most often leave it at that.

Teasing Nii-san aside, I'm going to get the henge down before moving on to the bunshin.

Supper was a quiet affair, with me looking at everything studiously, eager to henge into anything I wanted to without fail. Fugaku merely said, "You'll get bored eventually."

It was somewhat true, but with something like looking like anything I wanted to in front of me I just couldn't pass it up.

I went to bed that night with a wandering mind. Never settling on anything in particular before I drifted to sleep.

**One Month Later**

I'm five and the Great Fireball is easy now, if somewhat slow and small. The henge has been coming along well, with every day seeing a reduction in errors and greater ease in maintaining the technique. I'm glad I'm an Uchiha, blessed with the gift of more than average reserves and, more importantly, the sharingan.

Fugaku-nii unlocked his only a week ago, so I am understandably eager to have my own.

Hiroshi-sensei has been drilling me to the ground in chakra control, well, as far as the leaf sticking exercise and the leaf burning exercise can go. We make sure to go over the kata's for the interceptor style every day, as well as kunai throwing.

"Henge!" This time I transformed into Nii-sans forehead protector after hiding his real one, today would be interesting.

As soon as Fugaku picked me up I started having second thoughts, when he tied the knot behind his head it would apply a great deal of pressure.

Nevertheless, I did not give up, focusing on only the fact that I was a head-band! At length I stopped concentrating as if my life depended on it at, careful to maintain my form.

I looked around from my perch on my brother's head and saw a brown-haired man who wore a flak jacket. He must be Nii-san's jonin-sensei.

On a separate note, while this use of the henge is unorthodox it is not impossible. The idea coming from Sasuke throwing Naruto in windmill shuriken - or whatever they're called – form.

So if Naruto can be thrown like a shuriken, why can't I be tied onto someone's forehead? No reason; that is the conclusion that I reached.

Fugaku's teammates were a meek looking girl with dark hair and grey eyes, and a boy who carried himself with all the confidence of a genin who had not seen death. The boy was freckled with light skin and long light-brown hair and dark eyes.

"Let's go get a mission kids." While the girl just nodded both of the young males looked up in slight offence, obviously offended at being called "kids."

Looking back I don't know if this was such a good idea, watching genin do D-ranks seems kind of boring. Perhaps thinking I could maintain the concentration needed for the henge all day was a bit ambitious.

It turns out that the mission for today is… pulling weeds. I guess D-ranks didn't change much from now till canon huh?

I've always known that Hatake Kakashi was an awful sensei but now the point is driven home. Of course he _did _have _the most_ dysfunctional team ever. What brought this up is that after the D-rank we all went, and team Akiyoshi, as I heard one of them call the jonin, began the tree climbing exercise.

Naturally I filed away all the useful tips for later reference. But as Nii-san ran up the tree repeatedly I began to feel hungry. I had eaten a very large dinner the night before, and not neglected to snack before Fugaku woke up, but I was not used to having an empty stomach.

My stomach rumbled strangely audible to the outside world causing everyone to look at Fugaku. It seemed they all thought it was him but I knew he was far too intelligent to be fooled. My elder brother narrowed his eyes and, because he was actually hungry, let them lead him off to a restaurant.

As their orders arrived I could almost see the smirk on Fugaku's face, had he figured it out? Or was my stressed mind deluding itself.

As Nii-san slurped his noodles I could no longer bear it, my mind rebelling against the torment. And so against my rational thought the henge broke and I fell straight into Nii-sans yakisoba noodles.

I laughed awkwardly as I felt the juices begin to soak my pants.

The girl was the first to speak, "Uchiha-san's forehead protector is a little boy?" She asked with great innocence.

"Actually," I stood up on the table with a grand flourish, "I was spying on Nii-san while practicing my henge." My best imperious voice and face were plastered on, chin raised slightly.

Unfortunately the image was ruined by my dripping pants and all of them began to laugh. I joined in as well, recognizing how hilarious that probably was.

When the laughing died down Fugaku was the first to address me, "How are you going to pay for my lunch, otouto?" The question gave me pause, before I thought of a witty answer.

"It's not like it's ruined, my pants were perfectly clean. See, you can lick right off." I informed, turning my rear to him.

Despite himself Fugaku smiled, but still tried his best at a scowl. Akiyoshi grinned widely and the boy stared in disbelief while the girl began to blush slightly.

"I'll let you off this once, idiot." Fugaku said, "Now stop being impolite and introduce yourself."

"Of course," I back-flipped off the table, "I am Fugaku's younger brother, Uchiha Nanashi, pleased to meet you."

"Hisakawa Akiyoshi; pleased to meet you Nanashi-kun." How familiar, but with me as a kid and two Uchiha here it's only natural.

"I am Sugimoto Kazue, nice to meet you Uchiha-san." That was the girl.

"Tokuda Sadao." The boy said; such a reliable name. Sadao means 'decisive man'.

"If it's all the same to all of you I'll cut this short and run home to change."

"That's fine Nanashi-kun." Hisakawa-sensei spoke for the group.

I bowed out and tossed my brother his real headband. Saying no more, I left for home.

Well, I have to say that went amazingly well, and even Fugaku took it rather amiably.

I changed into a clean set of clothes and went over to Hiroshi-sensei's place.

"The henge broke when they went for lunch," Was the first thing out of my mouth after I had politely greeted the Uchiha male.

"I see; you lasted a while then." I had let Hiroshi-sensei know of my plot, knowing that without him it would fall flat on its face. Reason being: Hiroshi and I meet every day, if I didn't show up without telling him – or Nii-san, Mother, or Father -my whole family would be causing an uproar in Konoha, Sharingan and back-up heir and all that.

"Thank you for the kind words."

"Well Nanashi-kun lets go out and get some training in, yeah?" It was now that I remembered my distinct lack of lunch, fortunately my stomach did not rumble.

"Yes." I said with a smile, while my body rebelled; my spirit was strong, if I could exercise while hungry for hours, I could fight without food for a good while. In theory.

After throwing all my kunai I surprise attacked Hiroshi-sensei. This is how our spars began; everyday one of us would attack the other without warning.

Sensei swatted away my initial right hook easily, almost missing my left leg. He jumped back and took a stance, waiting for me to make a mistake. I took my own stance and we began to circle each other, I twitched my right leg as if to attack and Hiroshi-sensei took the bait.

I jumped aside as he punched straight at my previous position, back kicking as he went past. Unfortunately he spun around with his own spin kick, his superior speed and reach outmatching me.

I somersaulted backwards as his kick connected, my chest bruised from the force. Not resting and assaulted my teacher in a furry of blow counters and blocks. I landed some hits on his legs and he on my upper body, the logical result of the difference in size.

I disengaged after a particularly fierce set of blows and then quickly jumped high with a flying kick. On second thought a flying kick was a poor decision, as evidenced by its complete failure. Hiroshi merely ducked under it and swatted by back with his hand as I flew past.

The extra force threw off my landing off and I stumbled, my sensei took advantage of my floundering and placed me in the dirt with only token resistance.

I looked up and groaned, "I still have a long way to go."

"Yes you do." He offered his hand.

I took it in my own and stood up, brushing off the dust.

"Let's go through the kata's now."

"Ok, sensei." We went through the kata's for the interceptor fist slowly at first, speeding up each time we repeated until we were going at combat speed.

We went to my place after this, to get clean for dinner.

"I hope you aren't mad about my little stunt." I addressed Fugaku.

"It's fine, but if you pull that again I'll beat you into the ground."

I smiled, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"You're a strange one otouto; what kind of response is that?"

"An honest one, I've always valued honesty." It's true, I have.

"We're a family of fighters, liars, and killers, Nanashi."

"That doesn't mean we have to fight, lie, and kill each other and to each other."

"I suppose so Nanashi."

"How did Father's day go?" I asked said man.

"Nothing overly eventful, but what stunt were you two talking about?"

"Ah, I impersonated Nii-sans forehead protector."

"He also fell into my lunch." I mock glared at Nii-san for mentioning that.

"An interesting use of the henge, to be sure."

"I agree, I wanted to use the experience for practice but I failed to succeed."

"You did alright; after all being tied behind your brother's forehead must have been painful."

I beamed; Father was truly a knowledgeable ninja to think of such things, "It was, your compliments are to kind."

He smiled back but then turned serious, "And what then of your training with Hiroshi-san?"

"After I was discovered I immediately went to his house and requested that we train." I answered promptly.

Hiroshi nodded to Father's inquiring look and then turned to me, "That's alright then; everyone needs a break once in a while though, so tomorrow no training. Go to the playground and meet others your age, or if you prefer, visit other families within the clan who have children."

"Your offer is most kind; I will be at the playground after breakfast." Honestly I really needed a break; a day of rest after all this work would be nice.

I saw Father cast a glance at Hiroshi who gave a slight nod back, so, I was going to have an unofficial bodyguard? Never could be too cautious I suppose.

I cleared my plate and then took it to the sink handing it to Fugaku, or rather trying.

"Lazy Nanashi, you can do it yourself."

I grinned joyously back at him, this was his way of saying, "You're a big boy now."

I placed my plate in the sink and ran off to my room, putting all I had into my evening push-ups.

The following morning I ate, grabbed the lunch Mother had boxed for me and left. While Konoha was large it wasn't as if you couldn't find out where you wanted to go. The people were generally very friendly and were especially nice to little children. So I asked a citizen the way to the park and he cheerfully pointed in the right direction.

Konoha's public park is a large place, with plenty of opportunities and locations for children to play. By far the most frequented, however, is the playground. Where mothers and sometimes fathers brought their children to spend pent up energy.

I walked up and decided that whatever game these children were playing was not as good as it could have been. Well, maybe that was arrogance but I wasn't interested so I took a ball that was lying around and yelled, "If you want to play something actually fun come here!"

The ignorant children failed to notice the veiled insult and most came to me. I began to explain to them the rules of soccer and then chose a team leader for the other side.

I should mention that I don't really know all the rules of soccer, not that it would have mattered. Children don't care for the complexities of rule books and would have quickly lost interest.

I had the other kid, an older looking boy, pick first.

If there is one thing that can be said about little tots it's, "They're all brats."

The amount of delay we suffered because of children whining that they didn't kick picked was frustrating, to say the least; however, at length, the game began.

I'm not much for going easy on little selfish kiddies like these but it's no good if I just plow through them with shinobi skills. So I limited myself to a rather talented, but certainly not trained-for-two-years, level.

The game ended with my team having two more points than the opponents, I smiled.

I looked around at the playground after the game and saw what I sought, monkey bars.

I had always liked them, at first seeing them as a daunting challenge before looking at them as a way to prove myself. They're also quite useful for chin-ups.

And so I spent the rest of the day; on the monkey bars, going down the slide for nostalgia, and people watching. It was fun seeing how other kids behaved, and their parents' reactions and interactions.

So when the sun was lowering I left, going home in high spirits.

XXX

**Authors Note: So with this we clear 10k total words, yay.**

**Thanks to my first reviewer juste leave me alone for being my first, and so far, only reviewer.**

**I hope you guys liked this chapter, suggestions, critics, comments, and almost everything is welcome.**

**Next time we should be delving more into… I don't know what yet. **

**Hopefully my attempts and humor go appreciated.**

**Many thanks for considering this story**

**-Iamwhononofyouare**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and you're all glad I don't, cuz if I did I would sell it to the highest bidder for some quick cash… or maybe not, anyway, on with the story.**

**Chapter Three,**

After yesterday's fun at the park I figured I needed to move on to the bunshin.

It's actually amazingly easy to create a clone of yourself that takes no physical space, in other words, an illusion.

Unfortunately, getting your clones to move around is a much harder and more subtle task. So, while I could make a clone that would just stand there, I couldn't get it to run around.

So I trained my chakra control for a week of afternoons after training.

Wordlessly I went through the hand seals and made two copies of myself; they both looked at each other and grinned. Then I had a thought, I could use the clones as a powerful training tool! By making a clone go through the kata's for taijutsu I could correct my own mistakes. While Hiroshi-sensei's corrections are always easy to understand and very helpful; nothing was quite like seeing for yourself your own weaknesses.

By using a combination of Sensei's instructions and my own bunshin training I could become better faster.

Truly, the bunshin was a technique far better than most gave it credit for. Of course, the main weaknesses of the technique were that all it was good for in battle was confusing your enemy, but, none that I have heard of have used it like this.

I dispelled both clones and went outside, there making a single new clone I had it go through the kata's, directing every movement as I would myself. Predictably, beyond correcting a few minor errors, I was unable to see anything wrong with my stance.

I needed to know more about the style myself or whatever I saw would look right to me, since I was the one practicing. This called for a visit to my library.

On my way I thought more about the bunshin, it was truly a curious technique. It created no shadow but it could be seen, now light is how we see things, and how shadows are made. So why are the eyes fooled while the light itself is not? It makes absolutely no sense; theoretically the bunshin should just be a refraction of light but that would create some kind of shadow, wouldn't it?

I made a bunshin to be sure, carefully examining the ground around it. True to form there was nothing; well that does it, chakra doesn't make sense.

I guess that's why it's supernatural, I could spend life-times trying to figure it out; it truly is a whole science of its own. And while I've always liked discussions about impossible things, like say, time travel, I've also always been too lazy to seriously pursue them.

While we're on the subject, since chakra is beyond current comprehension and so is time travel – we know that space-time jutsu exist – could it be possible? While I'd read fan-fictions about it I'd always passed it off as a cool idea, feasible maybe, but not really possible.

But if instantly teleporting to somewhere half-way around the world is possible and summoning the dead with physical bodies is possible, why not? Well, learning more about chakra takes precedence.

Before that though, I need to read up on the interceptor style.

I soon found that the scroll was of small help, its pictures and instructions worthless when compared to private tutoring. Nevertheless, I found a couple of extra notes and moves that could be used.

I go to thinking; it would really be helpful if I knew a second taijutsu style. Unfortunately Gai isn't even born yet, let alone screaming about youth. If he was I could merely compliment his 'youthfulness' and get some training in the strong fist or whatever it's going to be called.

So we'll put that on hold until I graduate, since I'm assuming Father will put me in the academy.

For now we'll focus in on the bunshin and thinking about chakra, I don't want to read any more on it just yet. A biased opinion would be formed if I did.

And so I created five clones, looking over each I found that… I found nothing wrong, they looked exactly like me. I had read in one Naruto story about Naruto using the bunshin to make five clones, using complex maneuvers and weaving in and out of his clones to cause confusion in the opponent, it sounded useful if it worked as well as it did in the story.

The next day I asked permission to try something out on Hiroshi during our spar, he agreed once I assured him that it was not dangerous to either of us.

I tried out the idea with limited success, but I was not disheartened; if a, presumably, jonin like him had slight trouble with it then it would do fine on genin, it was an E-rank jutsu after-all.

So the rest of that day I practiced the bunshin, how to create more, how to control it better, and better misdirection in bunshin taijutsu, as I had taken to calling it.

I did the same the next afternoon, and for another two after that, before I felt satisfied.

Recently my thoughts have turned to genjutsu, incapacitating an enemy with small effort seems rather powerful. Of course, genjutsu users have some serious weaknesses; for one, doujutsu can see through them almost every time.

Number two, they spend so much time learning to make a better illusion that their ninjutsu is usually seriously weak. Exception being Uchiha Itachi, the guy was good at everything; well, I never encountered him in the cannon storyline so it's all hearsay. He's popular, so it's not unlikely that his abilities were slightly exaggerated. Of course, now that I think about it, he _was _weak at fuinjutsu, but that's not really an art that Uchiha pursue.

The Sharingan doesn't give one much advantage in seal making.

But this is one big sidetrack; plenty of people are seriously weak to genjutsu, falling for it almost every time. Of course, once recognized, low rankers are incredibly simple to dispel.

Still, the Sharingan gives numerous advantages in genjutsu countering and producing, it's only natural if I know something about it.

So I found a book, _Basic Genjutsu _by name, and picked it up.

_It should be first noted that basic genjutsu, that is E-C rank, uses the opponent's imagination against them, whereas projecting your own custom version of reality is a high rank skill._

Well, that's helpful, no sarcasm here. Basically, low rank genjutsu is mostly giving substance to a person's thoughts and inner horrors, you're basically saying to their mind 'think of this' and then solidifying that imagination with chakra, somewhat similar to the bunshin actually.

On second thought, it's not really similar to the bunshin.

_Genjutsu requires some method of getting your own chakra into your opponent's brain; this is commonly done with eye-to-eye genjutsu. By sending chakra into someone's brain through the eyes you're able to quickly launch your illusion, due to the proximity and intense relationship between sight and the brain._

_It's not really necessary to have eye contact, but it is by far the easiest, primarily because humans want to look at eyes, this is the same reason that full-face masks are slightly disconcerting._

So, if someone is looking at my fingers and I know it, I can launch the genjutsu from said fingers? Intriguing.

_All that's really needed is to get your chakra into the brain; this can be done with any of the senses._

So I can put someone out with a genjutsu if I grab their head? Nice.

_Once you've infiltrated the enemy in this fashion, you can control your chakra to stimulate their imagination. This requires knowledge of the brain._

I see, if I don't know what I'm doing I could just enhance their eyesight, no doubt this is the one of the main reasons for genjutsu failure. Now, while I could just do it in a general fashion, its best if I know the layout of the brain. That way I can make new and unique uses of chakra in the brain.

I doubt my little library has anything on the subject so I'll go to the public library.

I informed Mother where I was headed, and why, and left.

I asked the librarian where I could find information on brains and she directed me to the section.

What I really needed was a labelled diagram that had descriptions that told me what exactly each part of the brain controlled. Fortunately, I found a book that had this.

I had brought some paper and ink for this express purpose, I copied all I needed to know quickly, I put the book carefully back on the shelf, and left immediately so that I would be in time for dinner, bowing politely to the librarian as I exited.

I finally took the time to look over my poorly drawn diagram, it was enough though.

With this, I was well on my way to learning genjutsu.

After dinner I retreated to my library, to read more on genjutsu.

_It's best to start with something simple, so I've put a couple of simple E-rank genjutsu below, please get a willing partner for this._

For practice it probably is best if they're ready for it I suppose.

_Color Distortion Technique _

_This is as it sounds; by manipulating the other person's nervous system, you can make them see everything slightly tinted or outright all one color._

_An example of this is making the subject view everything green. _

_This is an easily seen through genjutsu primarily used for training._

It then listed directions and limitations of the technique. Since it was eye-to-eye you had to be fairly close to use it.

_Tickling Technique_

_This won't work on someone who has never been amused or isn't ticklish so it has some limitations._

_You'll to need touch the subject's belly or forehead for this one so it's quite difficult to use in combat._

_It works by making the subject remember the most amusing thing that has occurred to them, often resulting in making them falling over laughing. Alternatively you can use it to make them feel tickled, of course, some aren't ticklish, which is why this is another reason it is E-rank._

This one sounded quite… hilarious. But having to touch the foe for it to work is a huge issue, perhaps for the memory stimulating use you can go eye-to-eye? Sounds feasible.

This one did seem more useful than the last though. I'd ask Hiroshi if I could use him as my subject tomorrow.

What the book didn't mention was that touch genjutsu tingle like mad without good control, tipping the enemy off. Of course, Hiroshi still let me use it on him but he did inform me of this.

Taking this into account it should be no surprise that I prefer the more subtle eye-to-eye genjutsu.

Hiroshi-sensei cut his finger and showed it to me before making me see the whole world blood red, very disconcerting. I realized something then though, the effect was stronger if they had seen or considered the situation more recently.

Hiroshi-sensei then guided me through countering genjutsu and dispelling them, culminating in my successful dispersion of his Color Distortion.

Overall, it was a fun and informative day. It also taught me the importance of having better chakra control, so I began inventing new ways to use leaves for chakra control. It wouldn't do for me to just start walking up trees on my own after-all.

Of course I could pass it off as 'since my spying on Fugaku had introduced me to the concept'.

But I wanted to see how far I could go with leaves. And so I began with the challenging prospect of sticking leaves together with chakra.

Now, this might seem easy, considering the simplicity of sticking leaves to oneself with chakra but it really wasn't; I suppose it should help with the tree walking though, taking into account the fact that tree walking is done through the sandal, not skin to bark.

Predictably, I spent five afternoons disintegrating leaves with chakra flooding before I got it to succeed just once. Of course, at this my floundering resolve picked itself back up and I spent another whole week before consistent success arrived.

With my new and improved control I hastened to test it out in my genjutsu practice on Hiroshi-sensei.

"The tingling is a little less now, Nanashi-kun." He offered supportively.

"One step at a time, Hiroshi-sensei." I smiled back at the much taller male.

"Well, you still have a long way to go, but you're coming along." Hiroshi told me, I mentally thanked him for his moderated praise, pride cometh before a fall.

I slept well that night.

**Three Months Later**

Now five-and-a-half I am a budding genjutsu master. Yeah right, I haven't even poked out of the soil yet, barely more than a seed.

I had, however, learned the kawarimi and two new illusion techniques, both eye-to-eye.

Moreover, I'll be headed to the academy in a few months. It's quite fortunate, but here they use Arabic numerals as well, so mathematics won't be hard up through freshman year high-school level.

Once I earn my headband I'll look up some stuff on fuinjutsu, it being a highly praised and valuable skill. Of course, being a master won't happen unless I have actual talent in the field.

It seems expedient, now with the academy three and some low-ranked genjutsu, to learn some more ninjutsu. And so I asked Father and Hiroshi-sensei at lunch for a Katon jutsu.

"If you are ready, that's fine; if not, then you'll have to train."

After lunch, I showed Father my Great Fireball, and incinerated a leaf in my hand without burning myself to convince him.

"I see; then your request is acceptable."

Father showed me the hand-seals for the technique, Rat, Tiger, Dog, Ox, Rabbit, Tiger.

"Katon: Phoenix Sage Fire." He stated, launching several fireballs of small size forward, for effect he had them weave around each other before impacting against a wooden pole.

I went through the seals in a practice run before executing the technique. I had only been able to create two fireballs and I could not manipulate them as Father had, only being able to change their trajectory by a small margin.

"Hiroshi-san can guide you through the rest."

"Thank you very much, Father."

"It is of no consequence." He brushed off my thanks easily. I smiled slightly and bowed to him as he left.

"Let's begin. First, this technique is different from the Great Fireball in that the chakra is outside the body; this makes it harder to control."

"That's why the fireballs are small?"

"Yes. You couldn't change their trajectory as well if they were huge flaming balls of unstoppable destruction."

I see; this technique is quite hard because controlling external chakra is quite hard.

Of course, it's easier because the chakra is my own; I have no idea how bad it would be if I tried to use something else's chakra.

I pushed some of my chakra out of my body in spherical form as I went through the hand seals. When I completed the last Tiger the balls burst into flames and rushed forward. They dissipated before they could even hit the ground.

"I've got nothing more to tell you, though most don't try to use that method, instead most of us spit out each ball from inside the body, makes it easier to compress and control."

That would have been nice to know, this time I built up chakra inside my body, separating it into smaller balls which I spat out at rapid pace. They flew wildly and uncontrolled, I was still unable to manipulate let them to any real degree.

I spent weeks on it before I had passable control over the fireballs. Foolishly, I had depleted my chakra to a dangerous level at the end of this time, confining me to my bed for six days.

A month and a half after first being introduced to the technique I considered it truly learned.

"Don't be so careless, Nanashi-kun." Hiroshi-sensei chided me after I got up from my sick bed.

"I am very sorry Hiroshi-sensei." I bowed as far as was reasonably expected of me.

"Well, what matters is that you're healthy now."

Mother had taken very good care of me while I was resting; she had been very understanding about the whole affair.

Significantly, my chakra levels had risen slightly from the experience.

Despite all of this I was far from eager to repeat the affair, being bedridden for days was extremely difficult on me, a result of my active lifestyle.

"Of course."

"We've got some catch-up to do now."

"It seems so." I replied as I popped my joints back into place and did some stretches.

"It's good that you understand, Nanashi-kun. We'll be using afternoons for a week to make up for it."

"I'll come prepared then, Hiroshi-sensei."

"You've got ten minutes, no sense wasting time."

"I will hurry up then." I quickly changed clothes and collected my equipment, leaving my room in eight minutes.

"Good work, let's go."

I followed Hiroshi-sensei to our normal training ground where after some warm-ups we began to spar.

I launched a roundhouse kick at Hiroshi-sensei's face, failing to connect as he stepped back casually. I jumped forward quickly before he could counter, mounting an aggressive offense.

My attack was halted swiftly by the older man's deft right arm. Finding no opening and having far from infinite stamina I pulled back, allowing my sensei to make a mistake. He did not.

In short order I found myself once again wallowing in the dirt in an undignified fashion. I quickly rose and made that particular hand sign that signified the end of a match. I politely bowed to Hiroshi-sensei.

"Thank you for the spar." We concluded it thus, and he began reviewing my performance, pointing out where I had made errors and complimenting me when I made the right decision.

I then practiced my kunai and shuriken throwing; my shots woefully short ranged and slow due to my less than impressive stature. But that is what strength training is for, and so I try my best to make up the difference with push-ups and dumbbell lifting.

I was quite surprised that when I asked for a hand weight I actually got a real dumbbell, this world is full of surprises.

Recently I've taken up running, both sprinting and long distance, it is the best way to train stamina and speed after all. Quite delectably, it also improves chakra capacity.

"Father, how many Uchiha clans-people are there?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"A good question, we number almost two-hundred."

"You're quite knowledgeable."

"Of course, I am clan head."

"Are you the strongest currently living Uchiha?" No you're not, Madara is still alive but we'll leave that out for now.

"I like to think I am, but there are many talented and wise Uchiha."

Referring to up and comers as well as elders and subtly complimenting both, but we're not in company… It must be his honest opinion.

"Of course, Father."

That evening I went to talk with Mother.

"Mother, do you have anything to teach me?" I was careful to not sound whiny.

"It depends what you want to learn. Hiroshi-san and your Father are both much better fighters than me."

"Mother must be fairly strong or Father wouldn't have married her." I stated confidently.

She laughed gently with a smile, "Your Father wasn't always like he is now. Not that you're wrong, even then he wouldn't marry a helpless little girl."

"Tell me."

"Your Father was head-strong when he was young, confident in his training and the superiority of the Uchiha clan. He had a rude awakening during the war, that's the First Shinobi War; he lost his teammates, his sensei and his father."

"He became convinced that he was weak, and set out to change it. That's when he met me." She smiled nostalgically as she remembered.

"I was a genin at the time and he looked down on genins, they reminded him of himself." It's true, most genin are over-confident.

"He saw me as weak and useless, we went on a mission with a few others together and… I'll spare the bloody details, but he didn't look down on me anymore."

I see, a love born in blood, truly this is a world of killers, and I am from a clan of the best of them.

"Thank you for sharing." It lacked detail and was very brief, but I am thankful that Mother took the time to tell me this much.

"Anytime, Nana-chan." I can burn people alive at this point and I'm still Nana-chan, that's mothers for you.

After finishing my make-up classes my afternoons were free again. This time my thoughts turned to the Rasengan.

I knew the training steps for it yet it didn't feel right to steal it. That word right there, I'm a shinobi, I steal. Still, it would be no good if someone found out that I invented it before Minato, I'd have to keep it a strict secret.

But first, I'd need chakra control. Without the kage bunshin to help me I could spend a year of afternoons training in the technique.

That… that's rather daunting, perhaps it would be better to pick out a melee weapon to train in?

Let's see, meteor hammer? Katana? Perhaps a standard tanto or ninjato? Or maybe I wanted a big sword like Kubikiribuchou? At least I think that's the name of Zabuza's sword.

I looked through all the weapons I could think of mentally.

A whip perhaps? If made properly it could be infused with elemental chakra, now _that _would be impressive.

But first, I'd need ninja wire.

"Haha, I'm going out to buy some things." I informed my mother.

"You don't have any money."

"Oh." She was right, I _didn't _have any money.

"Tell me what you want to buy and we'll go get it."

"A large roll of ninja wire, and a piece of strong and flexible leather." I answered.

"I'll also probably need some way to tie the leather together; so strong rope as well."

"What for Nana-chan?"

"I'm going to make a weapon out of it, hopefully it'll work. This brings to mind, strong gloves will be needed too, in a fitting size of course."

"And what kind of weapon would you make out of that?"

"A whip, if I don't like it, I'll try out spears, and then if not that… a light-saber." The last part was added on in English and so quietly that Mother did not hear it.

"Rather strange weapons for a ninja, don't you think?"

"That's the point, I want to take the unbeaten path and discover things no one else has."

"I see, well it's not like this stuff will be too expensive so let's go." I get the distinct impression that she's humoring me because I'm a little kid.

Although… light sabers aren't impossible to make here, with chakra. Asuma's knuckle knives had something similar.

So many weapons… the problem with using a whip is that there are precious few who do, which means precious few can teach me.

The world of ninja's is truly a place to expect the unexpected.

**One Week Later**

It seems I underestimated the difficulty of safely braiding ninja wire and then tying off the end.

I looked ruefully down at my bleeding arms and spat in the direction of my little project.

Ninja wire was amazingly stubborn sometimes and ridiculously pliable in others. The real difficulty however was in tying off the end, if I didn't the whip would become three separate and wild strands in no time at all.

This was a dilemma almost a great as putting the handle on. This thought brought my gaze to the poorly made and flimsy leather that I called a handle.

I had finally attached it by making tiny holes and braiding the wire through them, unfortunately ninja wire was incredibly sharp and it was cutting through the leather at almost breakneck speed, my handle would soon be naught more than tiny pieces.

This all meant that I'd have to entrust the task to a real craftsman. This however, was unacceptably expensive; commissioning something like this that wasn't commonly asked for was quite costly.

Therefore I'll be setting this task aside, or getting some help, only one person to ask.

I went two houses to the left, "Hiroshi-sensei, sorry to ask you like this but could you help me with something?"

"I can, what is it?"

"It's better if I show you." I had painstakingly brought the 'whip' over and I now revealed it.

"What's this supposed to be?" He asked with a risen eyebrow.

"A whip," Seeing his amusement I added, "for combat."

"A combat whip? You're full of surprises; why do you need my help?"

"My handle is falling apart and I can't tie the other end off."

"I bet it is." He looked over my handy work with a critical eye.

"Well, it's not horribly done, a little bit thicker wire would have been nice but I'll manage."

I nodded, conceding the point.

"We can close off the end a number of ways; first, you could ask a blacksmith, he can take some extra metal and pound it together, this'll also give you a heavy tip."

"Or we could do what you did with the handle, only a tad more reliably."

"What would you do Hiroshi-sensei?"

"Personally? I'd take this to a blacksmith a get him to affix a handle as well as the end, that'll be the sturdiest option."

The wire pieces themselves were two-and-a-half meters long which made the end product rather over two meters; it was loosely braided to maintain flexibility.

"How much does that cost?" I'd always been a penny pincher.

"A few ryo, I know a guy."

"I only have ten ryo." I admitted.

"Don't worry about it kid, I've got plenty and you'll easily pay me back after only a couple missions."

"You are most kind."

"Let's go get it done."

We took the whip over to the blacksmith that Hiroshi-sensei knew, and he told the guy about the idea, who looked at me and raised his eyebrow twice during the short conversation.

"Leave it here; it'll be ready in a couple days."

"Thank you very much." I thanked both Hiroshi and the blacksmith.

As we left Hiroshi-sensei again struck up conversation, "Now kid, I'm more worried about you than the whip."

"Thank you for your concern."

"I mean it, ninja wire is dangerous stuff, I'm surprised your mother let you play around with it." Aha! It's a safety lecture; this man is such a heart-warming sensei.

"You are referring to the possibility of me cutting my own head off?"

"That's exactly right! You can seriously take heads off with that stuff."

"It's a risk I'll have to run."

"You don't have to; you can practice with a much less dangerous whip at first."

Of course I can, I already thought of this. I can just pull down some vines and whip those around; it's where I got the idea in the first place.

"I already have a plan." I smiled at his somewhat disbelieving face.

"Let's see it."

Konoha is a place full of trees, vines of all sizes that hug them is to be expected in this warm climate.

I yanked one down and swiped at my sensei with it, he automatically dodged.

I smiled, "See?"

"It's amateur at best; the difference between a vine and your whip is huge."

My shoulders slumped slightly; Hiroshi really didn't like this whip business did he?

"I'll be careful."

"I've got a better idea; we'll coat the sucker in lightweight washable foam; that should make it safer."

I almost asked, "You guys have industrial foam here?" but I refrained. This would indeed solve some of my problems.

The coating would limit maneuverability, considering that it was stiff and solid, but it would help out in the early months.

I spent my days before entering the academy practicing with the unruly whip and learning more taijutsu and chakra control.

A month before the semester started I finally got rid of the coating on my whip, now switching over to body armor over my vitals to keep myself safe.

It seemed that the art of the whip would never be a real art. I had learned some of what not to do, and some combos that only worked on stationary objects, but I wasn't much better at it than your average motion coordinated person.

It was all rather depressing but I didn't let it get me too far down.

"How's it going, whipping boy?" Once Nii-san found out about it he's been like this, I honestly think his teasing is the only thing keeping me going.

"It's going normal, Nii-san."

"More wasted hours at the whipping post?" This was alluding to the fact that I whipped wooden poles for my training.

"Not wasted, just used poorly."

"Finally realizing the futility of being a whipper snapper?"

The whipping jokes never cease, I say.

"No, I'm just depressed because Nii-san doesn't love me."

"Of course I don't, who'd love an idiot?" He asked laughingly, you really ought to be more careful Nii-san, a normal six year old could be seriously scarred for life if you said that to them.

"I predict that Nii-sans wife will call Nii-san an idiot."

"Then I guess it'll have been an arranged marriage." He replied soberly, to be honest I'm not against arranged marriages.

"You shouldn't try to act older than you are, you won't be getting married for a while."

"You're the one that brought it up, whipping boy!"

"Nii-san is abusive, calling his only brother a whipping boy." I sniffed into my arm.

"What? No! I'm not abusive, you _are _a whipping boy."

"See what I mean?" I cried harder.

"It's just good natured joking, no need to cry."

"So Nii-san doesn't think that whips are useless?" I asked mournfully.

"Ye…ah so don't cry."

I jumped and did a little victory dance in front of my brother's disbelieving eyes.

"I told you I'd get you to admit it!"

"You persistent brat, I should have known better than to trust you."

"By hook or by crook." I shot him a grin, my chin length hair framing my face.

"Little brat, this conversation didn't happen."

"If you say so nii-san, but what you said still counts, you just didn't say it under duress."

He opened and closed his mouth as he searched for a retort, finally settling with, "Nothing I said got said either."

"So I'm not a whipping boy? Yay!" I jumped for joy.

"You're impossible," Was all he could manage as he sighed and walked away.

"Thank you for your generous compliment, Nii-san," I bowed very slightly as he left. In reply he simply gave me a backwards wave.

Disappointingly, Fugaku isn't all wrong, my progress has truly been painful and slow, I've given myself minor injuries by the dozen.

However, it's a matter of pride now, I can't give up I won't give up. I shall succeed with this ambition.

In the process of reading all I could about ninja wire and whips, I'd run across the fact that it can handle elemental chakra, though water and earth are not very useful.

There is even a Katon technique that's used this way; I'll be looking it up soon.

In a month I'll be joining the academy, I look forward to seeing how I measure up to my peers.

I wonder if I'll be in class with anyone I know. Not really know, but know from the Naruto story, it's feasible I suppose.

**Two Weeks Later**

"How is my fire manipulation?" I asked my ever reliable Sensei.

"You're coming along decently; we'll need to find something more advanced for training."

"Heating up a rock? Heating water to a boil?" I asked eagerly.

He raised an eyebrow, "Let's go with the second one."

"When will Sensei teach me a new technique?" I was fully allowing my childish side to run rampant.

"Just as soon as you're top of your class."

"In that case, I'll do my best."

"You do that."

Hopefully Hiroshi-sensei doesn't think I'm a reward driven kid, people have memorized books of the Bible for naught more than candy I know.

It's far from above plausibility that a ninja would get to the top of their class for a new jutsu. In fact it's a major bonus to becoming best in class. But it remains a bonus; you should do your best in any case.

Hopefully someday I'll measure up to Hiroshi-sensei and Father.

**Two Week Later**

The water boiling exercise is really quite useful, I mused as I slurped my noodles; they were rather bland having nothing but oil on them, but it's the closest thing to Italian food around here.

Parmesan cheese is altogether unknown in this life, worse luck. In fact having only Asian food is getting harder on me, I'm used to it by now but I guess sometimes I fondly remember the variety of my life in my last body.

I finished my noodles at length and quietly got up, other than more advanced fire manipulation I've been being drilled in stealth, and I mean to use it.

I made a previously studied walk to the academy and asked for where I should go for testing, my mother shadowing my shoulder.

I reckon it's somewhat abnormal for the kid to lead and the mother to just be there at this point, but I am not going to submit to awkward shyness. You see, I've never been a people person but I'm conquering that fear slowly, like so many others.

The initial testing was absolutely wimpy, though it's to be expected.

The written portion was naught more than an IQ test; prospective shinobi under 75 IQ were immediately turned away.

Of course, this was only the paper side of things, after this they tested strength and stamina. I impressed myself with the fact that I needed lots more of each.

After they tabulated the results they ushered me into what would be my place of learning for a year.

To say I was surprised when the names of some of my classmates were revealed would be an understatement.

**AN: Here's chapter three, courtesy of me and my proof reader.**

**The whip thing might go nowhere, in case you were wondering.**

**Correct guesses on classmates will be rewarded with a shout-out.**

**Suggestions on just about anything are welcome; I like to know what you think. (In particular who should be on my team.)**

**-Sincerely**

**Iamwhononofyouare**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: If you haven't guessed what this is about already… I don't own a single work of manga. **_**Including**_** NARUTO period**

**Chapter Four **

"Furuya Mebuki?" A pink haired little girl was addressed, Sakura's mom? She called 'Here' eagerly.

A few others of no note were listed.

"Hyuuga Hiashi?"

"Here," Was his monotone reply.

"Hyuuga Hizashi?"

"Here," His reply was unsettlingly similar to the last.

A couple more were asked and then came the big one.

"Namikaze Minato?"

"Future Hokage is right here!" He yelled exuberantly back. A red-headed girl closer to the front scoffed.

Still more were read off the roll-call paper, even though there was no need; no kid wasn't there for their first real day of ninja school.

"Uchiha Isao?" This was the other honorable Uchiha in class, pun totally intended.

"Hn," The flat-haired raised his hand as he grunted his reply.

"Uchiha Nanashi?"

I showed off a little and smirked as I burnt a leaf in my hand, the smoke as my reply.

"Uzumaki Kushina?"

"Right here, get this over with already; you already know we're all here."

If I had to say… she's immaturely intelligent, translation: annoying.

Nevertheless, this is a rather prestigious year, in my eyes; to others it's just normal.

Of course, I expect none of my thirty-three classmates actually expect Minato to follow through; for now, it's best if I stay aloof, so as to not affect canon time-line over much.

It's sad that all the major members of my class except Hiashi die in a score of years or so. Perhaps I can change that.

The day began with an outline of what to expect and a schedule thereof, ostensibly so that the students could prepare themselves.

After this the teacher introduced us to the open circle a km in length. And then he promptly ordered us to run like it was to save Konoha, curiously, everyone sped up when he added that tidbit. I guess patriotism is strong in Hi no Kuni.

After we had exhausted ourselves within the time limit, we were called back and a professor style teacher came in, lecturing us on the Shodaime's legendary 'Will of Fire'.

The next day it seemed that I had caught a certain someone's eye.

"Hey noble punk, I'll run five more laps than you today!" It was, predictably, Kushina.

"I am indeed from the Noble Uchiha Clan; and while I resent the 'punk' label I am unable to refute it. In answer to your foolish statement, it matters little what you say you'll do, it only matter's what you can achieve." Hey now, that sounded pretty good, maybe once I graduate they'll start quoting that in this very room.

"Stuck-up clan-boy," Was her retort, having no answer to the latter half of my statement.

"Uzumaki-san, may I remind you that you also hail from a clan, if not as prestigious or well-known as my own?" Riling her up is just too much fun.

"Is that right, eye-ball freak?" Ah, of course the Sharingan would pop up.

To not seem speechless I answered, "My Sharingan is, sadly, not yet activated."

Any further bantering was cut short by the esteemed teacher who presided over today's physical activities.

"Shut-up and start running on three! Three!" I immediately spotted the loop-hole and lurched forward, "Two!" The rest of the kids caught on and took after me, causing the dirty blond sensei to smile and stop counting.

I ran just as fast as my tiny legs could carry me for a short distance, before evening out so that I could keep running for a longer distance.

Kushina, however, had no such reservations her active lifestyle helping her for a distance as she pulled into first place, sticking her tongue out at me saucily as she passed.

The redhead did not factor in the fact that we were going to be running for forty minutes and so she fell behind long before the end.

In the end a chunin's son placed second, with me a comfortable first; I did not, however, allow it to go to my head, beating brats less than half my mental age was no surprise; they had no form or strategy.

Arrogance has killed and will kill many.

*As a Ninja*

The unfortunate truth is… I need a shorter whip, after experimentally holding back a couple feet of my construct I found it much easier to use, whereas my tiny limbs could barely wield the two meter failing monstrosity.

So I took what was left of my ninja wire and cut three portions out, each one-and-a-half meters long and loosely braided it as before.

I looked at the ryo I had with me contentedly, my parents had started giving me an allowance after I entered the academy. And I now had what should be enough to pay for a handle on my idle new whip.

If I could only remember the blacksmith and the route we took to go there…

Oh well, I guess I'll wait until next weekend so that I can ask Hiroshi-sensei.

On that note, Hiroshi-sensei and I only meet on weekends to train nowadays, the academy taking the better portion of the day on week-days.

I looked down at the senbon in my hand with a face that said little of my anger at the poor thing. Fugaku had given it to me after picking it up in a training ground and had also said, "A whipping boy like you can use some 'real' ninja gear." I suspect it was mostly a joke but I still accepted it and began practicing throwing the thing, half the time I poked my palm with the double ended needle.

The other half my aim was off or the thing spun around and hit broadside first.

I muttered dejectedly as the battle-grade senbon fell down before it reached the target, the small flick of my hand muscles an insufficient propellant. Now that's an idea… propellant… pressurized chakra maybe? I needed a sturdy tube that was of correct size and I knew just where to look.

Gunpowder existed here already, if not in a few years, and could be used if I got my hands on some. On a separate string of thoughts… exploding tags were much more cost efficient and useful. Fuinjutsu… a tiny coin shaped object with the exploding seal carved on one side followed by a bullet? Maybe someday, if I get any skill in the field.

But really, guns under modern grade sniper and assault rifles are no good in a world of supernatural soldiers who can launch tsunamis in seconds.

And that brings us back to the senbon launcher, which could be useful, if it didn't need hand-seals or any hand interaction at all. If hidden on the underside of my forearm I could launch a palm strike followed by a high speed needle. That would be useful.

I put my Uchiha jacket on inside-out as I made my way to the metal junkyards. Just about any unused, unwanted, or just plain rusty metal in Konoha found its way here. Finding a pipe that snugly fit a senbon couldn't be too hard.

As only finding loose fits after hours could attest to, I am not infallible.

I brought the ones that could potentially be used with me and returned home before dinner.

After eating I was too tired to do any more than basic rust removal.

The following morning I slept in slightly, resulting in a morning rush as I hurried out the door to the academy.

It'd been two weeks since the academy started now and Kushina still challenges me every day, whereas Minato really does try to do his best. He's quite a kid, proclaiming his future rank of Hokage and yet not being as constantly loud as Naruto.

Instead he worked hard at his goal, really trying to be acknowledged.

Unfortunately for Minato, the blond boy really looked quite effeminate, as our class's resident tom-boy red-head can attest to.

"Uzumaki-chan, good luck with beating me today," It really grated her when people were arrogant and I have always found pleasure in provoking others, a poor trait to be sure.

And so I portrayed myself to her as a self-important prick.

"Little clan-boy hasn't taken enough of a beating yet?"

"Look at the record; you have yet to beat me in any way except for decibels produced per day and childishness." My chin was raised slightly and my eyebrow perfectly risen.

"I'll show you childish!" Her temper really is short; she lunged at me with a well-practiced punch.

To show my intense superiority I simply completely disregarded the motion – at least to untrained eyes – and the punch landed on my chest with no effect as I took my seat.

I smirked imperiously back at her and then moved my eyes to the door where the teacher had just arrived.

"Uzumaki, I saw that! Attacking classmates outside of spars is illegal, detention after school."

She scowled at the man and spat a little in my direction as she sat down in the closest opening.

Class was arithmetic; it was nothing more than addition and subtraction at this stage however. Childs-play.

After PE we were ushered back into the classroom where each student was handed a notebook and pencil before the history lesson commenced.

Before school ended we were all put through the unfamiliar katas of the academy taijutsu style, spars would begin in two weeks.

I mentally warred myself and decided that for academy spars I would use academy taijutsu.

This meant that I ran the risk of being defeated, but my course was set.

Of course, the other object of Kushina's attention was her rival, Minato; both proclaimed their future rank of Hokage and, naturally since they were the same age, both realized that one was wrong.

My honored classmates asked me which one I thought was more likely to succeed, and –being slightly chauvinistic- I said, "The strongest people have always been men, it's more likely that Minato will succeed."

This immediately rose the female in question's hackles and she angrily demanded why I thought that women couldn't be strong.

I had said, "I make no claim that they cannot be strong, I merely say they are not strong_est_."

Albeit I had a personal interest in infuriating the Habanero so perhaps I was biased, or maybe it was the fact that Minato really does make Hokage? It is of no consequence.

I went home happily and had a late lunch; I then found my shorter whip which had recently been finished by the friendly blacksmith.

I cracked it silently for experimental purposes. The sharp tip danced about as I lashed back and forth, I smiled widely; this could work.

I swung it around for a bit to get used to it before attempting to make a dance out of my moves. Unfortunately, I'm not much for dancing and so the session ended with drawn blood from my right arm.

I then went through the academy katas quickly before turning to my best tube.

The glaring errors were numerous, I needed one end closed or else it would be incredibly inefficient. The senbon didn't fit snugly either, which meant I'd have to use wadding.

Perhaps this really is too much for me? No! I refuse to give up until I've really tested it.

To close the end up I whittled down a stick to the appropriate size, I had to do this nine times to get one acceptably round; I then soaked it in water before sticking it in the end of the tube. Hopefully it would expand against the side enough to stay put.

I would wait two long weeks for the project to dry.

*As a Ninja*

"Clan-boy! I am going to beat you into the ground!" It seems Kushina is taking this 'rivalry' very seriously and is glad that we are going to spar.

My senbon launcher mark one is all dried out by now, I hope, and I want today's lessons to finish quickly so I can work on the blasted thing.

"I won't go easy on you, Uzumaki."

"It won't matter either way; I'll beat you into the ground!" Wow. Two words, worked up. I guess I've really gotten under her skin lately.

"We shall see how beats who in the ring." I ended the worthless argument and looked to the current fighters; Hiashi was demolishing a member of a lesser clan.

Next up was the chunin's son from day one and Minato, this could be interesting.

Minato obviously had trouble with the academy style, but at this point no one really expected anyone who wasn't from a clan do any more than sloppily flail about. So the fact that he used one combo from the manual was surprising, if not impressive.

Unfortunately for our class's blond Hokage proclaimer the other boy, Shin'Ichi, had received some instruction from his father; resulting in a resounding win for him.

However, the blue eyed Namikaze stood back up with a cheerful smile and thanked his opponent for the instruction as the teachers picked apart both boy's styles.

At length it was time for my match with the Habanero and we both strode confidently to the ring.

"Taijutsu only, yes?" I asked the proctor.

"Yes, Uchiha-san."

I made the seal of confrontation but Kushina did not deign to do the same, instead rolling her shoulder before taking a stance and smirking.

"I'll show you that women can be Hokage."

"I already know they can."

"Hajime!" Both of us ignored the call in favor of our bantering.

"Finally giving up? Scared because all you are is talk, huh!"

"Incorrect, I am merely stating that Konoha has no law for the prohibition of a female Hokage."

"You're persistent, clan-boy!"

"So I am, now, let's get this over with."

She jumped forward with alacrity, hoping to catch me by surprise no doubt; however, I haven't sparred with Hiroshi-sensei for nothing. I smoothly side-stepped to the left and symbolically kicked her posterior, angering her in the process.

She spun around with a kick of her own, impressively fast for a six year old and once again I lightly stepped away.

As she ran at me with a one-two punch combo I knelt, avoiding the blows and then launched an upper-cut to her stomach quickly, jumping back before Kushina's inevitable retaliation.

I then switched from my no-name style to the academy basic, waiting for her to make her move. She once again charged with a speed that belied her tiny stature, proving why she could beat up kids her age no problem.

Unfortunately for her success I was not just any kid, I swatted away her punches and kicks and then punched out before elbowing her in the face causing her to stagger backwards.

To say she was displeased with her failure to damage me was like saying that her hair was only a little red.

She jumped at me with a nicely executed flying kick that I dodged easily, kicking her back with a –whatever they call those 180 kicks- and she tumbled out of the arena.

"Winner, Uchiha Nanashi!" The teacher called as I offered my hand to the downed red-head.

"I don't need your pity!" She swatted my hand away.

"It's not pity; it's what winners do to losers to make them feel better." I shot her a smirk as I finished.

"I'm no loser!" She yelled, infuriated once more, ahh... it's good to have easy to manipulate people around you, she's more fun when angry anyway.

"That's right; you're the first female Hokage, yes?"

"That's right, eye-freak!"

"My money's still on Namikaze," I offered.

"The wimp? I'll beat him into the ground!"

"We shall see."

As with most days at school, it ended on a pleasant note, something to go home with a smile about.

I checked on my launcher when I got home and noted with satisfaction that the wood had indeed expanded, becoming quite tight. I procured two pieces of blank paper from the library and double lined the inside of the pipe so that the pressure would actually apply to the senbon.

Now I needed a way to make sure that there would actually be a chamber to build up pressure to launch the senbon with. I settled on wood once more, hollowing out one end of it I slid it down the tube and then shoved the senbon in after it.

Now for the hard part, I can't use fire or an explosion due to the partially wooden nature of my construct… I needed pure chakra, condensed to the extreme. I could then release my control over it; the dispersion of energy should shoot the senbon.

Well, that was the idea. Unfortunately, super compressed chakra takes a lot of control that I don't have, the senbon did little more than fly a couple feet really slowly before falling to earth.

Nonetheless, I considered it a success, after all the senbon left the barrel without the assistance of gravity.

Which brings us to our other problem, if you held the launcher at a low enough angle all the stuff inside would just fall out. This defeated the original purpose of being used as a nifty surprise in a taijutsu battle as one could scarcely not tip their arm down at some point or other in such an encounter.

And so I reached the obvious conclusion, I need a way to keep the senbon inside even if I tipped it so that it pointed straight down. I had some ideas on how to do this, none of them easy for a man of my resources.

But I was nothing if not resourceful and so I went to the one place I knew could help me.

"Hiroshi-sensei, I need help with another project."

"What now? Earrings that attack people on their own?" He joked pleasantly.

"That's actually a really good idea… but no, just a chakra powered senbon launcher."

I showed the work of art to his skeptical face. Then loaded and fired it, the senbon again going two feet before falling.

"It works! Let me see it… if you got this to work what do you need my help for?"

I reloaded it and then with great aplomb tipped it point down, the hollowed wood and senbon fell out.

"Ohh…" Was all he could manage, bloody useless.

"So you need a way to click in the senbon without making it impossible to launch?"

"Precisely."

"The simplest way to do that… You need a spring."

"Makes sense, where can I get one?" I let none of my apprehension show, how was I supposed to even install the spring! Sticking my hand down senbon width pipe four inches long didn't seem likely.

On a side note, I've never come to Hiroshi-sensei's place without him being there, is teaching me the only thing he does for a living?

It could very well be, maybe that's why he's so nice to me, 'As long as that clan head's son likes me and my teaching I'll have food to eat.' Is it that kind of thing?

But then again, Hiroshi seems like the genuine kind of guy. Maybe he just copied someone he knew with the Sharingan and now uses that as his basis for this personality?

Gah! Stupid conspiracy theories, it's doesn't matter, what matters is that spring.

"I bet I got one, I used to dink around with stuff like you when I was younger, still do sometimes." He smiled, so that's why he knows so much about random junk.

He brought out the tiniest spring I ever did see, sparking my reaction, "Is that tiny thing even going to do anything, sensei?"

"This thing may look small put its surprisingly strong, now… how to attach this?"

We puzzled over it for a while before concluding that the only way was to cut a hole in the pipe and then stick it in, something I was ill equipped to succeed in.

And so the project fell by the wayside, in favor of new thoughts and incentives.

While I regretted not being able to finish the launcher I looked at it as a learning experience: not all things will succeed.

And so I brought my attention back to my whip and taijutsu, practicing each for an hour a day.

Two months into school we had our first class rankings, the written test had been the day before, and I was proudly on the top of the list. This caused a grand smile within me, now Hiroshi-sensei would have to teach me my new jutsu.

"Hiroshi-sensei, I'm top of my class."

"So, you want your new technique then?"

"Of course," I grinned up at him.

"I'll demonstrate." He took a long piece of ninja wire and went through the full set of hand-seals for the technique and then fire took off down the wire as he spoke the name, "Katon: Dragon Fire."

I small flame went down the wire, grounding itself when it reached the end.

Hiroshi then told me the hand-seals and explained the technique, prompting me to use the same wire he had.

"Katon: Dragon Fire," I whispered in awe as the fire took off down the wire, with a small adjustment I could make my whip flame with this little trick.

Interestingly enough, when this technique comes in contact with flesh it causes a small explosion. I look forward to a burning whip indeed.

School the next day saw a rise in interaction between Minato and Kushina.

"Hey Namikaze! Let's settle this right now, you and me." So… thuggish.

"Of course, if you will acknowledge me when I win," Contrary to his meek appearance Minato was actually self-confident to an extent.

"No fighting in the classroom, brats." That was our dirty blond teacher Aoki Yoshiro, he was the primary instructor for our classes, as well as the teacher that I recognized by name here.

Fortunately for Kushina, she got her chance in the taijutsu section to beat him down, as they were matched up against each other.

"What a wimp," Was all the Habanero had to say as she stepped over the fallen body of her opponent. She really is quite vicious.

"Up Namikaze, my money is still on you." I encouraged, the little blond beamed back at me as he licked his wounds.

"WHAT! I just demolished him and you _still _think the wimp is going to beat me out for Hokage?"

"If neither of you get the title, he'll still be closer."

Crushingly for Minato, he now had to put up with daily taunts and near-daily pranks from Kushina now. It seems she really cares about my opinion? Well whatever, by the time we're jonin she won't even remember this.

The days passed by like a breeze, and by the time year two of the academy started the rankings were simple.

Uchiha Nanashi; I'm just that good, what can I say?

Hyuuga Hiashi; no surprise here, considering his status.

Hyuuga Hizashi; again no surprise, he is a quite talented individual.

Uzumaki Kushina, apparently she actually is rather good at basic multiplication and division.

Shin'Ichi; never did catch his last name, as everyone just called him 'Shin'.

Uchiha Isao, if he were any lower I'm sure he would have cried, honestly.

Namikaze Minato, to Kushina's chagrin he was actually intelligent and really quite good at everything he set his mind to.

The list went on but these were the persons of note.

Now seven, my whip wielding skills are actually skills, my genjutsu has improved and I've learned much about the art of illusions.

_It is possible to insert chakra into the subject's brain at long range, without eye-contact or other sensory affliction._

Seriously, why wasn't that in my beginner's book? This method is actually closer to ninjutsu than sensory genjutsu, since it uses hand-seals to focus chakra, a necessity considering the chakra usage of such techniques.

I've also learned the more enhanced version of the henge, projecting a layer of chakra around other objects to transform them. While impossible to henge a ninja into someone else you can do it with a normal civilian, though I don't know a lot of civilians.

The reason you can't affect a ninja in this manner is simple, the human body rejects foreign chakra.

This is why jinchuuriki have an abysmal life-span normally, main exception being Uzumaki, who don't reject foreign chakra as harshly, making them easier to both heal and seal living beings into.

And also the easiest to project a henge onto, don't tell anyone. And so I followed Kushina home, changing her into Minato in appearance I waited for when she would wake up. I consider this just retribution for the pranks she's pulled on me.

Of course, Kushina has a surprisingly girly side and so she keeps a mirror which she brushes her hair in front of every morning. So when she groggily awoke and changed behind my respectful back and then meandered over to her mirror, the room we were both in was shaken by her scream.

If I had hands in this form they would be over my ears, but right now I'm just an amazingly mobile dirty plate. I really should have gone with the termite henge.

Having seen the fun I quickly became a scrambling bed-bug that slipped out under the door. The henge is really a reality defying technique.

Wrong! What really happened was that I transformed into the plate and then cast a genjutsu that played out the rest of the seen, sans what Kushina did of course. You didn't really think anybody could just conveniently henge into an unnoticeable bug did you?

Don't get me wrong, it's most certainly possible, just not for the current me, also the henge is no physical transformation, just a change in appearance to the naked eye.

Which is why doujutsu can see through them, as they are most certainly not the naked eye.

On the subject of the genjutsu I used, it really is not a very combat oriented one, basically what it does is make things in a certain direction appear the same for a few seconds, it's useless against skilled shinobi is a constantly shifting environment.

The bed bug was a personal touch.

Useful for pranking hot tempered as the redness of their hair Uzumaki though. I expect my projection henge will wear off soon. Nonetheless it was amusing to hear her horror at seeing herself as someone else in the mirror, and for real.

Well, it was mostly for a practical use of my new genjutsu skills, and if I may say, genjutsu is very useful.

In any case I still have class to go to.

*As a Ninja*

Kushina narrowed her eyes at her blond rival before making insulting gestures in my own direction and sitting down wordlessly.

My my, too speechless to talk this fine morning? Of course, I'm not stupid enough to say that out loud.

"I'll beat you up good, red-head!" That was Minato, and no matter how much I look at him those words should not leave his lips, he's such a small kiddo.

"You? Beat me? Wimp, that'll be the day."

Oh yes it will, I look forward to it.

"And when I do, you'll have to acknowledge me!" It's almost sad how Minato and Naruto in the academy both had the same reason for being Hokage.

"If you can beat me I'll kowtow before you, wimp, believe it!"

"Just make sure you remember you said that when I win!"

"I remember everything, blond."

Wow… that's some serious discrimination going on, throwing blond around like an insult and all.

"Hyuuga, I look forward to seeing how much you've improved."

"So do I, Uchiha."

"What about you Hizashi-san? Have anything to say?"

He cocked his head ever so slightly before speaking, "I also look forward to seeing how much we've improved, Nanashi-san."

"You guys are about as exciting as a blunt kunai."

"We do not need to be exciting; we only need to be effective."

"Of course, I leave it to your father's better judgment." Really though, the pain inflicting function on the Hyuuga branch members is unneeded and gross. I mean I respect that they don't want their doujutsu stolen but it's really too much.

While I can't say I'm on good terms with the Hyuuga twins – who can? – I will say that we get along fine. The two are nothing if not polite, though Hiashi throws subtle challenges and insults every so often, a result of the rivalry between the Uchiha and Hyuuga.

While by the time the Kyuubi attacked the Hyuuga were ahead in the political game they were not so now.

The lecture today was more of a 'gratz you made it through year one' kind of thing.

There were no spars today, mostly just a rerun of day one of entering the academy.

This year it seems we'll delve into the mysteries of chakra; having forgone most talk about it the year before, so that late bloomers could have a chance for the big expand.

Other than that it seems we'll get an extra teacher to 'help us out', more likely to keep us in line.

Curiously, hand stands will be a part of this year's curriculum. I suppose they told us so that skirt wearers would have a chance to switch to pants.

I walked home from school, confident in my ability to stay on the top for this year as well, and as I marched along a dreadful feeling hit me.

I began to run home, fearing that perhaps this dread was perhaps for a reason. I pushed open the doors to the compound and recoiled at what I saw.

Dead Uchiha, everywhere.

I frantically searched for my family but in their place stood a man, with an orange mask.

This was impossible! Obito wasn't even born yet, I carefully stopped the flow of chakra in my body.

"Kai!" Nothing.

"Kai!" A triple layered genjutsu?

"Kai!" Still nothing.

"KAAIII!" I began to mourn; it was real… but how? Had my presence changed so much? I looked around and saw a mirror. Only, it was not my expression that surprised me, not even my tears… It was the eyes, those cursed, red eyes.

The eyes of a pathetic avenger, the eyes of a murderer, the eyes of a worthless sensei… My eyes.

I gazed at the mirror, ignoring the orange masked man. Watching wordlessly as the hypnotic spinning of a single tomoe in each eye did not cease.

The world around me shattered.

A saw the faces of my family and my one true sensei, Hiroshi, a dream?

"Poor boy, this kind of thing can traumatize kids Yuu."

"That's what has to happen, unless we threaten his life."

"Sorry Nanashi, but by all accounts you should have had your Sharingan by now."

"What?" It was all I could manage.

Hiroshi-sensei continued, "Unless your Sharingan is activated by intense emotions or life-or-death situations, it should pop up on its own."

"The rarity on the popping on its own is so low though that we've come up with a system, once an Uchiha attains a certain level of strength we use this genjutsu on them."

"It's a Demonic Illusion that's layered and much more subtle than the easier and more common, Hell-Viewing."

"So it was all a fake to get me the freaky spin-eyes?" I asked, astounded.

"If you want to call them that, then yes, Nanashi. Now, remove the chakra from your eyes to deactivate them." My father - Yuu was it? – was the speaker.

I focused and deactivated my Sharingan, noting with interest that the world was no longer HD.

"I hope you don't blame us for this."

"Of course not, Mother." I smiled as wide as I could without showing my teeth, indeed I should thank you. No matter the method, doujutsu are too powerful to pass up.

"Good, Hiroshi-san will be instructing you in the use of your Sharingan starting tomorrow. For now, rest." Was he going to put me out? He was it seemed, I activated my Sharingan as Fathers blue hand came down, hoping to copy the technique.

My vision went black.

XXXX

**AN: The Isao pun is referring to the fact that Isao means 'Honorable man'.**

**And here is chapter four! Thank you to all avid readers of this less than perfect work.**

**Suggestions for teammates are still welcome. All other suggestions as well.**

**Please leave a review, ok? Good.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or even this keyboard.**

Chapter Five

A single tomoe Sharingan has the less than all-powerful benefit of enhanced vision and photographic memory. It also provides a faster signal between eye and brain. While a distinct leg up over a normal eye, it pales in comparison to the 2-tomoe or 3-tomoe.

Nevertheless, I currently have only the one tomoe, so I shall use it to my advantage.

And so as long as I am able I keep it activated, as I read, and as I train, but not while in school, ever. Call it keeping secrets, but I find no purpose in flaunting to my classmates my soon to be technique-stealer.

And so they know nothing of the red eye that only Uchiha carry, Kakashi not nearly on a team with Minato as sensei yet.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

"Hello, Namikaze-san what can I help you with?" Truly, it's not often the blond approaches me

"I request a spar, to test myself against you." He's not the first to say something along those lines; I think I understand Shikamaru a bit better now.

"You think you're up for it, peon?"

"Of course! I'm going to be Hokage!" Yay for you, you didn't add the ever disappointing 'when I grow up'.

"That is acceptable, where shall I find you when the time is for our fight?"

"Uhh," He rubbed his neck hair in a suspiciously sheepish manner, "I haven't picked a spot yet."

"You asked me without arranging a place of confrontation? You could have chosen ground that favored you."

"I didn't think you'd actually agree." At least you're honest, little one.

"So you came with no expectation of success, how brave."

"Anyway, I know a good spot."

"So do I, Konoha has plenty of open spaces for ninja to fight, and plenty of forested places too."

"Then after you."

"I merely stated I knew places to confuse you, you are still the host and must still find the field of confrontation."

"Right." I am being rather difficult aren't I?

After school I followed the young Minato to a wide, open area with zero trees, an amazing feat for a place like Konoha.

"Rules?"

"Anything you got but no weapons." Good-bye then, future Hokage.

"In that case, please let me know when to begin." Minato really is quite adventurous, inviting me to a completely private spar like this.

"Hajime!" He yelled and stood stock still. I looked at his feet, clever boy.

"Did you think that would work?" I asked as I turned around to face a charging Minato.

"No!" From the side! Double clever.

"You shouldn't have revealed your position." Were my words to the almost sickly looking boy as I slammed my foot into his gut. Kawarimi?

"Smart, you impress me Minato."

"Hyaah!" A drop kick? Naïve. The kick walloped where 'I' stood. Causing the bunshin to fade as the ruse was revealed; however, it seemed Minato compensated and his landing was not affected.

I looked straight into his eyes, launching an E-rank genjutsu.

"Everything… is yellow?" He asked as I gave him a yellow smile.

He jumped back as he cried his defiance, "Kai!"

"Close, but no miso." It sounds funny I admit but 'no cigar' isn't a saying here.

I had circled around at my fastest pace as soon as the genjutsu was laid, leaving a bunshin to act like me.

I punched quickly as he made a hasty defense and I bemoaned the fact that weapons were not allowed.

He somersaulted backwards to absorb the force and I knew better than to follow after.

"Try this for size, Namikaze." Three hand-seals later I was surrounded by ten bunshin. We each cracked our neck and took a stance, ready to pounce on the little boy who dared to challenge our superiority.

I wove in and out of the bunshin as I advanced, Minato blocking illusory punches all the while. I went to his left as the other ten each took an angle, as one we jumped in each in a slightly different pose.

The orphan blocked me, I narrowed my eyes.

"I can sense you."

"Of course, I forgot that you were a sensor."

"Forgot?"

"Forgot, didn't know, no matter." I went through hand-seals slowly behind my back.

"Is that right?"

"That's right, I shouldn't try this on you but, I will." I launched my Phoenix Sage Fire and the young boy, limiting the power so that it would not be fatal.

"Holy! I didn't know you had stuff like that!"

"Everyone learns, this may hurt so please dodge my friend."

Instead he charged straight at my fireballs hitting the dirt as he got close. If I had my Sharingan activated I could have reacted in time but as it was the fire impacted the ground.

I lurched forward to take the battle to close range, engaging the future Hokage in fierce taijutsu.

"I see you know your academy taijutsu well Minato-san, allow me to show you something more."

I switched to the almost unfamiliar interceptor style, speeding through the practiced moves too fast for the surprised blond to react.

I finished the combo with a left legged kick, finally downing my opponent. I offered my hand to the orphan.

"You impressed me, Minato-san."

"Thanks! Just call me Minato."

"Then I suppose it's polite for me to let you call me Nanashi."

"Of course, Nanashi."

"You ok?"

"Just a few bruises."

"Works for me, you live at the orphanage, yes?"

"Yeah, until I'm a genin at least."

"If you require no aid to proceed to your residence I shall leave you now." I love talking funny.

"I'm fine, Nanashi, see you tomorrow."

"Indeed, live long and prosper." Inside jokes are the best kind, yes?

Minato took off in the direction of what I knew was the orphanage, and I left for my own home.

"Mother, I have returned." I greeted said female figure.

"Welcome back Nana-chan."

"I need to go wash up; I hope to see you later."

"Of course, no problem."

I went to the bath that we owned and relaxed in its soothing embrace. And my thoughts turned to the ever present question, why?

Why did I try so hard to get stronger? Was it because there were few books and no internet? Was it because it was the path of least resistance? Or was it because I was naïve enough to believe I could really change a thing?

It was a question only I could answer, which didn't reassure me.

I needed a confidant, someone I could trust with my knowledge, but there was no one.

Minato was no good, if I told him his sense of justice would end him or me in the loony bin. And if not that; then the course of events would be altered too significantly by his own machinations.

My own family could… this discussion was useless; I'd never trust myself to tell anyone this, or trust anyone enough to tell them it either.

I removed myself from the bath after I had spent sufficient time and effort to become clean. I looked at my right hand, activating my Sharingan as I did so. I clenched the hand hard as I gazed upon it intensely, making a solid fist.

I loosened the hand and clenched it once more, again not moving my eyes.

I was determined; I knew I was; I only went through this little ritual when I was. But then, what was I determined to do?

I needed a goal, something I would fight for and protect. What would it be? My arrogant clan? The self-righteous Konoha and its citizens?

No, I needed something more… worthy.

I punched the wall before clothing myself in the Uchiha style I owned; I looked at the fan on the back of the jacket before shrugging and putting it on.

Perhaps some carving would release some of my useless questions back to where they belonged.

I informed my mother that I would be in the Uchiha training ground with the most trees and brought my shorter whip and my kunai and shuriken.

I cut down a branch with my sharpest kunai and began peeling the bark five inches from one end. I then sharpened the bark-less end quickly.

I grabbed the crude representation of a medieval sword and experimentally swung it, smiling nostalgically as I did so. Sword-fights with wooden sticks seemed so long ago.

I stabbed it into the ground and then wrapped my whip around it. I pulled back suddenly and with force, causing the sword to go flying behind me.

I put my hand down to my pouch and then whipped my arm out throwing two shuriken at once. They both flew true and impacted into a large tree, close to each other.

I picked my whip back up and began swinging it around cracking and curling it at will, until a tree branch interfered that is.

Something I'd have to work on.

**XXX**

I have come to the realization that whips are far from deadly, the most damage it can do is severe bleeding and poking eyes out, it's next to impossible to remove limbs with it.

That, however, is somewhat beside the point, the point is… Today I get to fight Hiashi.

I stepped into the arena as my stoic dark-haired opponent walked in calmly on the opposite end.

"I look forward to a good match, Hyuuga-san."

"I will not hesitate, Uchiha-san." Well, that's good and all, but Jyuuken strikes are not allowed in the academy.

"Begin!"

I took the academy stance and my opponent took a modified version of it.

I began the first engagement by charging low with a tackle, with the intention of bringing Hiashi to the ground.

The Hyuuga nimbly dodged to the side but had no method of countering me. I stood up straighter and attempted a punch.

Hiashi used his right hand and deflected my strike, countering with his left. I kicked, letting the Hyuuga's attack land as my own did so.

Each of us stumbled back, but he more so. I smirked widely before tripping in the loose dirt of the taijutsu ring, as expected; Hiashi came in with a small axe kick.

The smooth-haired youngster was taken by surprise as I aimed a kick at his open groin. He widened his eyes at my dirty tactics and retreated before great pain came, putting his hands down in a guarding fashion as he did so.

"I didn't realize you were so dishonorable, Uchiha."

"I'm a ninja, even if only in training."

"I see." He lowered into an impressive natural pose.

However he was far to stoic and stringent to lower his guard, so there was no way I would fall for it.

His eyes took a calculating gleam, before the veins around them bulged grotesquely.

"Adults and children! Isn't that over board Hiashi?" I asked.

"I think not, considering your own condition." The Byakugan can see it? Very interesting.

"I don't need such tricks to beat you," I glanced meaningfully at the watchers.

"I see; arrogance." Harsh, although perhaps true.

My one major advantage remains, he won't use Jyuuken strikes in academy spars.

"Get it on or I'll be forced to call the match a draw!" The teacher was right; the academy has limited time for all these spars.

I quickly shifted to the interceptor style and jumped in. Right hook, left straight, spin kick, jump back.

Nothing, the Byakugan really can see 360 degrees. However, it doesn't give the almost predictive powers of the Sharingan.

I jumped forward with an extending kick but Hiashi easily countered.

I'll keep it close then.

I punched and used my elbows, keeping me feet on the ground so that he had no chance to jump back. The speed of the Hyuuga hand was put to the test, and it won out, clearly Hiashi was getting ready to learn that 2, 4, 8… 64 technique.

"I concede; your Byakugan is too much for me." I bowed in surrender as he in return bowed in respect.

Later I saw Hiashi looking at his slightly purple arms in wonder, I smiled at that.

**XXXX**

To start making my own jutsu, I needed plenty of chakra, and tons of chakra control.

Well, tons may be an exaggeration but I did need more than I had. So, make up stuff or go with what we know? Tree-walking it is.

Tree-walking can be learned in a few hours so I'm not worried about the ordeal.

I went to where Hiroshi-sensei and I usually trained and picked a tree to abuse. Chakra in the feet, to stick to the tree; Kakashi said that a running start would help, and I doubt he'd sabotage his cute genin's training.

The kunai to mark distance would be forgone though.

One awkward landing later and I was second guessing; it'd be much easier to just wait.

No! Giving up is for wimps, I should not admit that I am, indeed, a wimp. Perception is ninety-nine percent of reality they say.

Run at the tree put one foot, golly half my trouble stems from the fact that when I run at a tree I put just one foot on and then jump off. I never knew I'd be conquering this old habit.

But if I stuck the first foot on then I could not jump off, this would be my goal.

Three hours and some wounds later I had done enough to satisfy myself and I went in for supper.

One dinner of yakitori later and I was in my library.

I looked through book titles and scrolls but couldn't find anything that I hadn't read that interested me.

Perhaps some wandering was in order.

I exited the house; the days were plenty long so I had at least two hours left before dark.

It's never struck me before but I'm actually quite high strung aren't I? I notice when people in the crowded streets of Konoha walk within fifteen feet of me.

The percent of ninja is quite high in Konoha, one in seven persons are shinobi. Grim faced war veterans and cheerful youngsters, scarred but still not jaded middle aged men, patriots and…

Pale skin, dark hair, yellow eyes; where do I recognize that from? I got it, only one person answers that description, Orochimaru.

Had he started his experiments yet? On that note, you can't really blame him for his rather distasteful methods. He had no god, no higher law, and no constitution to prevent it.

Indeed, in a secular view what he did was even commendable; he preserved higher learning and advanced technology after all.

As far as I know Konoha has no bill of rights, if it does then he would be punishable by law, if not… then no.

The same could hardly be said for Danzo. He was a thief and an old man set in non-progressive ways, truly an abomination to liberals. Indeed, he made no move to 'better mankind' instead he was a long term visionary, a nationalist so whole-heartedly for his home country that he would listen to none but himself.

Orochimaru was… looking at me. He still wore a jonin flak jacket at this point.

I narrowed my eyes back at him; I doubt he'd even begun his delving into the mysteries of his body possession technique. Still, one could never be too careful.

He moved over in my direction, "Kukuku, you're the one they call the next genius? Interesting."

"Why would you be interested in me, Orochimaru-sama?" My eyes were still narrowed and I was ready to draw my kunai at the slightest provocation.

"A doujutsu is always interesting, especially with such a curious wielder, we'll meet again, Nanashi-kun." He left me and as I watched his back he walked away in his own slithering style.

Well, Orochimaru knew about me then? He won't try anything for now, he's a discreet person. Well, until he's ready for the big reveal, then his arrogance can kill him.

It seems Jiraiya is not in the village and I'm not going to be bothered to ask after Tsunade.

When you think about it it's really quite remarkable. Shikaku is around my age, which means many years shall pass before the big stuff happens, not to take away from the 3rd shinobi war, but the 4th is so much more.

Perhaps I can prevent Naruto being born? No, there is no need, all I need to do is help out Nagato so that he does not become Pein, and stop Obito from getting crushed by rocks.

Not that it'd be so simple, I was unaware of the events surrounding both happenings, going to Ame and killing Hanzo before Yahiko died could work, but I was nowhere near strong enough to try that.

As for Obito… sometime when he was on Minato's team and in the 3rd shinobi war, nearer to the end, was all I knew.

So no, not at all simple, I would need a capable sensei, someone as strong as a Sannin.

This was a serious dilemma, only about five available people qualified for that.

Danzo, the Sannin themselves, and Hatake Sakumo, Sarutobi was unavailable because of his duties as Hokage.

The Edo Tensei could provide me with the Shodaime or Tobirama but I was unable and unwilling to use it.

Being on Minato's team with Jiraiya could work, but I doubt if I really want that. Orochimaru… he could be useful, very useful, but Tsunade, there was no way I would be learning advanced medical techniques, if I could get ahold of Kabuto's method then I would be happy.

And Sakumo, he was most certainly plausible; I knew little of him, not nearly enough to fill me with bias so I was more than prepared to study under him. Danzo was extremely unlikely, he was probably far too busy founding Root and playing around politically to take a genin team.

However, it was far more likely that I'd be landed with a no-name jonin that isn't weak at all but is in no way famous. The library would be my friend after I had learned all I could from Hiroshi-sensei.

I walked back home, I had not spent more than an hour in the city, judging by the position of the sun in the sky.

**XXX**

The most diverse and all-around ninja art had to be fuinjutsu. I'm forgetting something though aren't I?

I am already aware that few have talent and fewer still have the patience for it. I'm also aware of the possibility of destroying myself with seals.

In fact, I have a fairly good understanding of the whole situation if you ask me. So what was it?

Uzumaki seal-masters… Mito! That's what I was forgetting, Mito was still alive. If I could become her unlikely student, could I learn more than otherwise possible?

Still, I find it hard to believe that she'd train me, an Uchiha of all things, in the sealing arts. She probably dislikes the clan as a whole since the entire thing with Madara.

Nevertheless, I would not admit defeat until it was sealed with Mito's own insignia. I would find the red-head and ask her, if she refused, so be it.

It took me little more than five minutes to learn that Mito lived outside Konoha proper, almost two hours walk away in fact. Probably a precaution, since if the seal failed the Kyuubi would be released. Or was it because Konoha held only sad memories for her?

I steeled myself and went out to the country house she lived in.

As embarrassing as it may be, I walked straight into the barrier that surrounded the place.

Soon the owner came out of the house, wearing talismans upon both ears as adornment.

"Are you lost, child?" She may have been old but her beauty had not yet faded, her hair still as red as it had been many years before.

"I," I composed myself, "I am not, Mito-sama. My name is Uchiha Nanashi and I came seeking instruction in the sealing arts."

"Of your own will or because your family sent you?"

"Of my own will." I held her gaze.

"I have no interest in passing on my secrets boy, let alone to an Uchiha."

"I see, I shall return tomorrow to see if you have reconsidered."

"I won't."

"It matters little, I said I shall return and so I shall, good-day Mito-sama."

I had been prepared for it to go worse, but this was not unexpected.

If Mito had no intention of passing on her arts –and I doubt she lied- then what of the Kyuubi? When Kushina died, what then?

Had she truly thought that the little brat I went to school with could calm Kurama's great hate? It seems I am not the only hopeful one.

**XXX**

"Hey clan-boy, ready to lose again?"

"That was two days ago and I lost to Hyuuga Hiashi-san."

"The other clan brat? Yeah, that's what I meant."

"It seems you over-estimate the class Uzumaki-san, I can count those who could best me in this room on one hand."

I stepped to the side as dirty water poured down on where I usually sat.

"Really, Uzumaki? That's the third time; conversation to distract me won't help you." I nimbly jumped up as an arrow with some kind of putrid material on the end whizzed past.

"Che!" She looked away, her red hair swaying lazily behind her as she did so.

"Namikaze! Look out when you sit down." I informed Minato as he somewhat sleepily walked in.

"Huh? Oh."

The same dirty water that tried to soak me was also avoided by the blond.

"You ruin everything all the time, eye-freak."

"Are my eyes freakily good or are you just scared of unnatural eyes?"

"I ain't scared of your freaky eyes, clan-boy."

"Then I stand answered, my eyes are freakily good." Word games are easier and more fun than pranks any day.

"Stop arguing….." The teacher trailed off looking at each student's forehead in disbelief. Okay, maybe pranks are fun to.

On every single students forehead there were the words 'I hate you sensei', at least, in the said teacher's eyes.

"Sensei? What's wrong?" Mebuki was the speaker.

Aoki Yoshiro rubbed his eyes and blinked twice and then looked at my almost smirking face. He narrowed his eyes and called, "Kai!"

"Uchiha Nanashi, detention!"

"What for?"

"For placing a genjutsu on your teacher."

"I didn't do any such thing, and I will be most offended for the sake of students everywhere if you punish me for something you cannot even say I did." Ok that was a blatant lie, but I got to practice some time.

"You're the only kid here who can even _use_ genjutsu."

"And how do you know that this so-called genjutsu was placed on you inside this room!?"

"I… I don't."

"So do I still have detention?"

"No, you weaseled out of this one, but I'll be watching you."

I made the most righteously offended and disbelieving face I could possibly muster, aiming it straight at the almost-sorry teacher. Making faces is super effective!

It was a harmless prank anyway, unless he's one of those dudes who commit suicide when idiot kids say, 'I hate you!'

History was first today, and then a taijutsu lecture, which most kids thought was useless; I found the philosophy and uses of hand-to-hand combat intriguing.

Then was sparring, I was against some no-name that was easily crushed, my thoughts too occupied to show mercy.

School ended, at length, and I immediately made my way to Uzumaki Mito's residence, to ask her opinion now that she had slept on it.

"I have returned for your answer." I informed the eldest red-head I knew of.

"First, come inside where we can talk."

She didn't immediately turn me away, that can only mean good things.

"Why do you wish to know fuinjutsu?"

"I want to expand my capabilities, I find fuinjutsu intriguing."

"What is your view of it?"

"There is no view of it; if one views it in a manner they limit its potential." Hopefully a philosophical answer can impress her. Though the fact I took a whole fifteen seconds to make that up won't.

"How much do you know about fuinjutsu, Uchiha child?"

"The wise man knows that he knows nothing, I may not be wise but I know this."

She smiled, "That's all well and good, but how much do you know?"

"It uses Kanji and lines, ink and chakra, sometimes blood, and can seal even tailed beasts, like the one in your gut." If that's not common knowledge I may have just dug my own grave.

"The one in my gut?"

"The Kyuubi."

"I see; I wasn't aware that kids your age were privy to such information."

"I'm not, but I have my methods. In any case, fuinjutsu is easily the most diverse and difficult of the ninja arts."

"Indeed it is, as I said though, I have no intention of passing on my secrets."

"You know too much, don't you? If someone had your skill but no morals… you shudder to think what could be done."

"Yes, that is correct, and so I shall take my knowledge with me to the grave."

"I shall respect your wishes, Mito-sama."

"One little tip for you, don't limit yourself, and by no means limit fuinjutsu."

"I shall remember, live well and farewell, we probably won't meet again." I left, then, disappointed that I could not be taught by the most legendary sealer, but glad I had at least tried.

If I were to learn the art I would need to use the library, if Tenten could use basic fuinjutsu by fourteen, so could I.

I made my way to the Archive, as it was called, to see if they had anything useful for a clan-boy like me.

"Excuse me, librarian, but where can I find some texts on fuinjutsu? My name is Uchiha Nanashi, pleased to meet you."

"Ninja ID?"

"I'm an academy student, I don't have one."

"E-rank texts are all I can show you then, and fuinjutsu is a D-rank skill at the lowest rung."

"I assure you, I am a D-rank ninja, I can demonstrate if you wish."

The man shrugged in a 'lead the way' fashion, obviously willing to make the exception if I succeeded.

"Katon: Great Fireball!" I yelled for the man to hear as I blew a fireball into the sky harmlessly outside.

"How old are you, kid?"

"Seven," I answered innocently.

"I tell you what kid; I'll let you look over any D-rank stuff you like."

"Thank you very much, sir."

"Not an issue, Uchiha-kun, I'll write you up a permission slip."

We went back inside and he grabbed a blue credit card looking thing and wrote my name on it, took a picture, and then signed it himself.

"Have fun kid, and don't blow yourself up."

"I will take your kind words to heart."

I found what I was looking for, a book on fuinjutsu, D-rank of course.

_Fuinjutsu for Dummies_, somebody has a sense of humor.

I checked it out for a few ryo and took it home.

"What book is that, otouto?"

"Fuinjutsu book, Nii-san."

"First whips and now sealing, what next, a flying technique?"

"That's a really swell idea, flying sounds good; in fact, I bet I know a way to make it work." In theory flying in a chakra dense world should be easy with enough chakra, simply convert chakra to fire nature and use that like a jet engine. Or use wind chakra on your body directly to elevate yourself.

"You and your science bunk."

"Just because I know a way doesn't mean the way is easy, it won't be happening for a while." I mean really, the Land of Sky needed the whole Zero-tails to work, although a one-man scheme should take much less effort.

Plus, I'm not even sure if the Land of Sky even existed in Naruto-verse, could be a product of fan-fiction. But I doubt it.

**Two Months Later**

The fuinjutsu book, while thick, only provided scant knowledge about the subject as a whole. But it was useful, I have learned that fuinjutsu is more complicated than High-school as a collective heap, and biology sucks.

The book, however, did highlight how to make a storage scroll, something very useful, as well as the common explosive note as examples.

Making chakra ink was taught and with my Sharingan it was easy to copy the explosive note and make another. Let it never be said that my explosive notes don't work.

By far the most interesting, however, was the fact that you could make your own seals, though great care was needed, by linking together Kanji. A practical example is this, right here in my hand.

My first original seal it stores only water. Liquid storage has always been an issue with the common storage scroll, but behold! With this, my glorious invention, even storing blood for times of war shall be made possible!

Now it's time to test it.

I presented my scroll to the river that was near Konoha, activating it and plunging it underwater as I did so. Lo and behold, the water that came in contact with the seal disappeared.

I removed the scroll from the river and stopped channeling chakra to it. With this Suiton users everywhere shall worship me!

The scroll started to fall apart, turning as liquid as the water it contained.

Well, perhaps they won't.

Still, it did work, if only temporarily, and I am unharmed so that can only be a good thing. I only need a way to stabilize the scroll itself while not interfering with the liquid storing function.

Aha! A stability seal somewhere else on the scroll, that should do it.

Unfortunately this also yielded lack of success, the scroll took forever to open and close and way too much chakra to be useable.

But it worked, and that is what counts. I'll keep a storage scroll for water on me at all times, never know when you'll need to douse a fire.

While I was eager to sell the scroll, I knew it would be useless to Konoha as it is; the number of Suiton users was too low and the chance of Kiri getting their hands on it too high.

Perhaps if I limited the stability seal more?

As it turned out when I linked twelve limiters to the stability seal I could store about twenty liters of water at once without the scroll turning to liquid and releasing its contents. This was optimum as the delays were, at this point, negligible.

The chakra cost was still a little high for my tastes, but anybody could handle it.

The fact that the more water the scroll contained the more prone it was to becoming like water opened up a serious fact: fuinjutsu did not make sense.

However it might be more proper to say, "Fuinjutsu makes its own sense, you just have to understand it." Which is easy to say but hard to do, reason being; fuinjutsu is no ninja art; it is its own thing, not created by man, only discovered by him.

Perhaps writing was originally only used for seal-making? It's intriguing but irrelevant.

This all took ten days of testing to discover. And, looking back, I can see why fuinjutsu is unpopular; it takes hours to create a single reliable seal and days to create a simple new one. It's known that Minato spent four years on the Hiraishin, and I'm fairly sure he had Tobirama's notes for the technique.

**XXX**

To the great consternation of our class, a certain orphan blond is rising up the hierarchy. The Hyuuga particularly seem concerned by his rising strength.

Our red-haired 'life of the classroom' however was less than impressed.

And one, two, three, "You think you're something, huh, worthless blond? I tell you what; I'll show you your place right about now."

She seemed serious, if her gait as she walked over to Minato is any method of telling.

"What is my opinion on fighting in the classroom, Uzumaki?!"

"Fighting shall be conducted outside in a proper manner, or is for combatting enemies in war time, sir!"

"That's right, and what is my expressed view of beating down fellow academy students?"

"Beating down shall not occur; rather, organized spars with a proctor of some sort shall take place."

Aoki really beat this into her huh, guess she needs it; he does seem the drill-sergeant type I guess. Still, how much detention did he give her to make her remember this junk verbatim?

"Good. Sit down class." Yoshiro has steadily become less cheerful and stricter – like military – starting this year. Must be to get it through thick genin skull, we don't allow insubordination; I mean this _is_ an _army _of professional killers we're talking about.

I rolled my shoulder as I sat down, putting my feet up on the desk. It's out of character for this me, who is always polite to everyone. But hey, I have, or had, a large rebellious streak. I won't say a mile wide because that would be disparaging.

We also have the so called 'killing classes' in which you get lectured about taking life and the best way to do it. Most of the kids write it off but Mebuki took it so badly she looks queasy every time we have lectures.

It seemed like the kind of thing Tobirama would have implemented, I like the guy already.

Still today has none of that kind of thing, instead we have manners and civilian acting. Which sounds useless at first glance – and most kids here are the first glance only type – but it's actually quite useful, since it doubles as a way to spot who is a shinobi.

Today is also our 3rd kunai and shuriken throwing contest, the only reward is bragging rights unfortunately.

Kunai first, I'll be somewhere around third to last. Shin'Ichi got 4/5 and both the Hyuuga and Minato got 4.5/5 with one whole being a fatal hit and a half being a non-fatal wound.

The rest of the class mostly received 3/5, give or take one.

Isao got a three kill hits and two wounds, making his total four. And now I was up.

"Clan-boy, bet you'll miss two!"

I pressed my tongue against my bottom lip, keeping it contained within my mouth. It seems a demonstration is in order.

Stay humble, even the best can miss, and shoot! Two in the head, one in the neck, and two in the heart.

"Thank you very much." I closed my eyes and gave a head-bow to the entire class.

Still, if I were given seven kunai I would miss one out of them.

Kushina stepped up to the throwing line, the kunai I had used already returned to me.

Her anger will cloud her aim at this rate. A hot temper is truly the curse of fighters. She landed all five in the chest still, unluckily for her, two kunai missed kill zones so she ended with four out of five.

The shuriken went more poorly for me; I ended with only 3.5/5 while Minato got a lucky –by his own words- 5/5 putting him into the lead for shuriken throwing of this class.

While Kushina is still an irate red-head I dread how bad she'd be without her friend Mikoto, said black-haired individual was an Uchiha and something of an older sister figure to Kushina.

Curiously, Hiashi and Hizashi seem to have drawn closer to each other.

XXX

I went home that day less convinced of my ability to stay the top of my class next year and even this one. Maybe it's because the academy doesn't include my whip-wielding abilities and new-found fuinjutsu skills? Or is it perhaps because my age advantage is plateauing finally? No matter, pride and arrogance do not befit me and superiority is a sure-fire way to breed such things.

**AN: Kukuku… maybe the plot should start picking up next time, or should I do a massive time skip? You, little reader, are in the palm of my hand, I can even insert you as on OC… but I won't.**

**Chapter 5 done, yay, hopefully you guys like this one. My own concerns: Hopefully I'm not coming across as a Gary you-know-what while still conveying that I'm not a wimpo. Jonin-sensei suggestions are welcome, future skills advice will be considered, and rest assured I READ ALL REVIEWS. Please make more for me to read.**

**Sincerely,**

**Iamwhononofyouare**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the cannon characters therein.**

Chapter Six

I smiled nostalgically as I returned to the Academy for my 3rd year therein; my second year had been interesting, and a learning experience; now I felt like I was on the home stretch to becoming a genin.

Not that I'll be graduating way early, that could put Nii-san's position as clan heir in jeopardy; and I have no interest in leading the clan directly, though there are benefits. For one, I would be able to spend most of my time within the village, spending time with sons, daughters, and nephews. And maybe even nieces, if my appearance in this timeline has changed more than I thought.

But truly, the position of Uchiha clan head was about as attractive to me as the Hokage's hat, I.E. not very.

The reason I have no desire to be Hokage is simple, I've seen Sarutobi's face in person. That tired and haggard look while still cheerful and smiling was enough to drive me away from the post forever.

Not that with my knowledge I couldn't help Konoha with becoming a better village, but I had no real desire to do that either. I was not so naïve as to believe that Konoha was 'the good guy' and everyone else the 'bad guy'.

Indeed, Konoha's ninja had lead Akatsuki, killed thousands and experimented in ways that only Sasori could even hope to match. And he did it with dead bodies, which in my esteemed opinion, is no problem at all, the fact that he killed people to experiment on, however, was plain playing god.

Not that we don't all play god at least some time in our miserable years.

Gah, I'm going on a thinking rant again, where is Kushina when you need her?

"Oi, clan-boy!"

Right there.

"Yes, Uzumaki-san?"

"I am going to beat you into the ground!"

"You can try, and you can fail." I've had that saying for years, can't believe I'm only using it now.

"I bet you can't even float in the sky."

"I regret to inform you… that you are absolutely right, I am unable to 'float in the sky', Uzumaki-san." I kept my face carefully blank and my voice ever so slightly goading.

"See! Even genius eye-freak over here can't do something!"

"Everyone has a limit, not to sound petulant," Although I _do _have some ideas on how to pull off flight with chakra.

"Well you did sound petulant, petulant clan-boy."

If I said anything back I would look irreparably childish, so I merely gave a slight nod and sat with the Hyuuga twins.

"Hiashi-san, Hizashi-san, how are you two today?"

"I am feeling well, thank you."

"My health is impeccable." Hizashi finished.

"I see; I hope that the home situation is good, not to pry."

"Indeed, Father has advanced both our training's and is in amiable condition."

"I am glad to hear that, Hiashi-san. And how is your mother, Hizashi-san?"

"She is well, but still pays more attention to Hiashi." The two are close and do not resent each other but still, I am amazed by how open with me they are about the home condition.

"Bias cannot be destroyed I suppose," I replied politely, I couldn't say much else without crossing into dangerous and very Hyuuga territory.

The relationship between me and the Hyuuga twins is an intriguing one, while we are tacit friends, we are also rivals, a natural result of the Hyuuga-Uchiha 'my doujutsu is best' thing.

"Good morning maggots!" Yoshiro really has gotten more severe over the last year.

"Good morning Sensei!"

"Furuya dropped out so you won't be seeing her this year."

I see; Mebuki dropped out did she? I wonder why, not that I ever acquainted myself with her.

One of the boys in class hung his head. A budding friendship? A one-sided crush? It doesn't matter in the end.

"I expect the rest of you to make a real showing, no slacking allowed in this class."

"Yes sir, Aoki sir!" Need I say it again? Kushina wasn't the only one to get stomped into place; the whole class got a taste of sensei.

"I want this year to be a real learning experience for all of you." He smirked and cracked his knuckles, a simple, if effective, intimidation tactic.

"I don't think we need to go over the rules, so we'll get right to it. When I call your name, you come up, and without a single peep you'll receive a schedule."

He called in alphabetical order, starting from the top. Once we had all gotten one he continued.

"If you lose it, you will not get a replacement so, if you can't keep it safe! MEMORIZE IT!"

Most of the kids swallowed nervously and mutely nodded.

"Now for the obstacle course, to determine class placements, that's outside to your left."

The entire class wanted to groan at this point, while my no-longer-new diligent personality recognized the benefits, my lazier side wanted nothing to do with it, but we kept it in because of the knowledge of what would follow.

The obstacle course was a reusable, non-lethal, half a mile of torture, every five feet or less there was some manner of pain waiting to be unleashed, and every six months six vindictive genin teams redid the whole thing.

Fortunately, unless you really screwed up all you got was a couple bruises. It was also wonderful competition however, since because of the length of the track they sent in a new student very five minutes no matter what.

This resulted in a system among the students where each kid was graded by how much time he was ahead of the guy behind him.

Suffice to say, plenty of kids got so shamed because of this that they willingly took the course so that it wouldn't happen again. Because it 'encouraged personal ability' the teachers made no move to alter the state of affairs.

The current best time record holder was Hizashi, a full three seconds faster than his brother. Next came myself, thirty seconds behind Hizashi, after that it was Kushina, she took twenty-one seconds longer than I did.

In any case, as last year's top student I had the dubious honor of going first. I yawned and clacked my teeth twice as I stepped up to the starting line.

"Begin!" The mid-height Aoki yelled almost insistently.

I took off at a mad sprint, ducking under two swinging logs and over a pit filled with painful rocks. It seems the course got more dangerous this year, time to show off.

I activated my now two-tomoe Sharingan and continued, easily picking up trip wires and pitfalls with my enhanced vision. I lazily stepped, jumped, and hopped over the traps until I came to the most unique of the new additions, synthetic rapids.

This would slow anybody down, but it's not expressly against the rules to go around it, problem is it might be faster to go through it.

I _did _decide to show off right? Through it, it is.

My Sharingan still draining chakra I carefully made my way across the very real, if man-made, roaring waters. They really spend a lot on the Academy huh; guess that's why tuition is so high.

The 'river' crossed, I almost got swept off my feet the fact that the ground under me moved away causing this disaster. I picked myself up from my clumsy stumble and charged ahead.

The course seems longer this year, I slid under a low-hanging beam, perhaps 3rd years are expected to be good? Of course they are; I dodged around a clumsy dummy samurai with a wooden sword.

Finally, I exited the training run, right at the location I had begun, only on the other side.

"Congratulations Uchiha, you are the current record holder for this year's class." Yoshiro mocked.

The rest of the kids laughed, amused that the so called genius Uchiha had taken so long on the course.

Their laughs turned quiet shortly and soon whispering started, Hiashi had gone in after me so there was no way he could be this much behind. In fact, Hiashi did not emerge until five minutes and three seconds had passed beyond the time I had come out.

"Is the course harder this year, Hyuuga-san?"

"Yes," Was his brief reply.

Several widened eyes met this statement, conveying the owners' true feelings of 'it was crazy hard last year!'

At length the whole class had gone through, the ones after Hizashi looking more or less disheveled.

Minato in particular had looked bad, though I suppose I don't spare much attention to anybody else, save the Hyuuga and Kushina.

Then we had gambling lessons, to everyone's great surprise. Apparently, being a gambler was a common cover for Konoha shinobi. Although I get the impression it was later removed from the academy since it was all luck.

Still, knowing when to fold or go all in was a skill that all ninja needed.

Poker was the game played, thank goodness, so it went alright. The teachers handed 'Academy tokens' to all the kids at the start of the game, apparently these tokens could actually buy you stuff from the Academy. This added a sense of realism to the game.

After poker it was acting, you picked a class-mate and acted them out for a set period; it could be quite confusing, since it was all the kids at the same time, with henge applied.

School ended half-an-hour later than usual, apparently this was the new normal, and I left for home worn out but smiling.

Being a kid was great.

**XXX**

I have not discovered any revelations in fuinjutsu since my experiment with liquid storage last year.

This was all rather disconcerting to me, but with months of nothing I have turned my attention back to my senbon launcher.

I went to the rust-yard and found a piece of piping the exact same as last times, though this one was considerably longer, and took it over to the blacksmith, who I asked to cut it in half. He made some foolish statement about how he was above cutting pipes in two but I refused to pay him more.

I would love to cut it myself but I had not the saw needed for such work.

Then I had him make me a cylinder of very thin metal that would fit inside. Also commanding him to make a protrusion, that could be pressed down with minor effort. When I was sure the competent fellow understood my needs, I left him to it, counting out the cost as I did so.

I gave him half in advance, as was standard in crafting society, and left, to return in two days.

Two days later I was back at the blacksmith, asking if my order was ready. It was, and the man and handed me my things. I thanked him with words and money and then left, excited to see if I could pull this off.

I removed the pressure chamber wood from my mark one senbon launcher and moved it over to mark two, the end filling pieces already prepared; I inserted them in each new construct.

Now for the wait.

Class followed the same general pattern as the first day, though P.E was not always the obstacle course, naturally.

Acting and gambling remained as a subject. Math was upgraded to more complicated things, stuff that could actually be used by active ninja.

Kushina was as she always is, "Clan-boy, I heard you lost yesterday."

"My loss was only token," A brilliant pun if I do say so myself.

"So I heard, betting it all on a pair of jacks!" She began her offensive cackle.

"It was a risk I was willing to take, I lost."

"And whatcha gonna do when it's your life on the line, Uchiha?"

"How morose, I doubt I'd make the same choice, I value my life more than my money."

"I knew it, a coward eye-freak."

"I am indeed a coward; if you'll excuse me, Uzumaki-san." Perhaps she has changed somewhat.

The red-head watched with open mouth as I left her standing there, I know I'm a coward. Doesn't mean I like being called one.

Though to be fair, gambling with your life is a fool's choice. Still, I am a coward, so scared of blood and guts I can't even behead a chicken, or gut a pheasant.

Maybe that should be next on my things-to-do list, yes, I think so.

"Haha, I need to butcher an animal." Let it never be said that I don't follow through.

"Eh, why, Nana-chan? You can buy meat at the store."

"That's not the point, I dislike blood so I have decided to conquer my fear, what better way than to butcher an animal?" It should be noted that I am completely okay with my own blood, but other people's or critter's blood can get to me.

"Aren't you a little young for that kind of thing anyway?" Here's the problem, to my mother I am still little 'Nana-chan'.

"I'll be a ninja in two years or less at the current rate."

"I see, in that case let's ask your father." Why such a big deal about killing, skinning, and gutting a rabbit or some such thing?

Nevertheless, the issue was put on hold until Father got back from his duties.

I let Mother start the conversation, "Nanashi said he wants to butcher an animal."

"Why?" The Uchiha patriarch asked, turning to me as he did so.

"I want to get over my fear of blood."

"Fear of blood?" He asked with narrowed eyes, "A worthy goal, proceed immediately."

It seems Father dislikes the fact that his child does not like blood to the extent that it is called 'fear'.

"Thank you very much." Now to find the poor critter, shouldn't be too hard, I know some of the clansmen keep chickens.

I checked my scant pile of ryo, praising my penny pincher tendencies as I did so; it would be enough.

I knocked on the door of an Uchiha who owned some fowl.

"Sorry to disturb you so late, but can I buy a chicken?" I asked politely.

"Who's asking?" The man asked as he opened the door.

"Uchiha Nanashi."

"That's all right then, any special needs, kid?"

"Just a living chicken that can bleed, sir."

"Aha, you ain't the first kid who's come for that reason." He picked out a distinctly old rooster.

"Free, more trouble than he's worth at this point."

"Thank you very much." I put my money back in my pocket; I'd need a wallet soon.

"No trouble, good luck."

I grimaced as I got a whiff of the chicken yard smell emanating from the rooster in my arms. Old or not, he was going to die early.

I went to the training ground where Hiroshi-sensei and I still met on week-ends for training, finding a short pole to set my meat on.

I took the now squawking piece of free blood and set it down, holding on to one of its legs.

I wrapped my whip around the poor thing's neck securing the other end to a nearby pole. I pulled on the leg it the opposite direction, stretching the rooster out for the finishing blow.

Grimacing as I pulled out my sharpest kunai I bemoaned the fact I had not an axe.

It would have to do.

A chicken's neck is an amazingly tough thing I mused as the roosters head finally swung free of its body. I held the dead chicken down as it continued its struggling, waiting patiently for the dead body to stop.

Chickens are quite interesting when they have their heads severed, the continued motion a mystery I have yet to dissect.

Now for the hard part; it's lucky the day has plenty of light left as I doubt I can skin the thing in under an hour. Before that though, I need to pluck it.

I almost studiously pulled the feathers from the cooling corpse, sighing at the sheer quantity.

At length, the still draining body was naked completely. I shivered in disgust as I shifted the rear in my direction, rubbing my nose with my right arm as I did so.

Now to stick my hand in there.

**XXX**

In retrospect, while butchering is somewhat disturbing it isn't so bad. Though, the feeling of being a sort of murderer because you killed something not a bug remains.

Still, I feel almost good about the whole affair, it having gone better than I expected.

I daresay I think it should be downright mandatory for academy students in the fourth year. Fortunately, for guys who don't think so, I'm a third year, and I'll probably have forgotten all about it by next year.

**XXX**

With the requisite two weeks drying period over, I inspected my mark two senbon launcher, admiring the blacksmith's handy work as I did so.

I experimentally popped down one of the protrusions, noting with delight that it was almost effortless and that it popped back up just as easily.

My mark-one pressure chamber inserted, I loaded the senbon. I then pointed the contraption up down and all around, nearly gushing over the thing as the senbon stayed put.

Putting both hands on the launcher I compressed chakra, inside the chamber, to the upmost of my ability. Then I pointed the thing side-ways to me and released, the senbon barely exited the launcher, poking out mockingly.

I nearly screamed, what had gone wrong! I carefully pulled the senbon out, then noticing the reason of the problem. The wooden chamber had clearly had too much speed, destroying itself on the double ended projectile it was meant to launch.

Obviously I need a totally metal launcher, as evidenced by the fact that the end stopper had been blown outward to an extent.

This was a disaster, when was the last time I even succeeded at _anything _new and unseen? More than a year ago.

Perhaps a fuinjutsu rifle like I had thought of before? It was worth a shot.

I took the previously used senbon launcher mark-two and disassembled the thing, leaving me with a useable pipe. Rifling the inside would have to wait, for now I needed bullets that'd fit. A visit to my favorite blacksmith is in order it seems.

"Blacksmith-san, I need you to make spheres that'll fit inside the pipe perfectly."

"You need what? Kid, didn't your parents ever tell you to stop playing around with stuff?"

"Never, I see you aren't busy."

"No I'm not…" He slumped his shoulders.

"Now what you'll need to do…" I described the little bullet maker from the movie 'Patriot' and I think the intelligent man understood.

"And once it's made and ready you can just put pieces of lead in."

"I see how it is, kid. Run along."

Still, I doubt an inaccurate musket will threaten shinobi. I liked the idea though, even if I was wasting time.

**XXX**

The academy never fails to surprise me, in one way or another. It turns out that the place has had a _gym _of all things, all this time.

Everything from tread-mills to dumbbells to various rope climbing activities, it was like heaven for dedicated students.

Unfortunately, kids from all years were present and the teachers didn't interfere unless stuff approached maiming.

This is unfortunate because it seems I have some older… admirers.

"You think you're hot, huh? Think that just because you're a clan-brat you can just go anywhere you want?"

"To what are you referring?"

"To what are we referring?" The somewhat pudgy boy asked his friend in a mocking imitation of my own voice.

"What we mean is…" They shared a laugh, "GET LOST!" All three yelled in my face.

"I'm afraid I know my way around Konoha fairly well and don't think I can get lost, perhaps another time." Ok, _that _was somewhat arrogant sounding, but boy did that feel good.

"The look on your guys' faces!" The absolutely dumbfounded face they had worn gave way to a look of unbridled rage. All three lunged at me, as I jumped back to avoid certain pain.

Three minutes later I was sitting on flesh, spitting out pink spit as I did so. I admit; they got in a lucky shot. Two lucky shots actually, I looked down at my slightly bruised left side. For bullies, these guys were good.

Of course, having two years on me helped them somewhat, but I have the interceptor style. It's rather embarrassing that they even touched me.

"Oi, stop moving! Don't you know that chairs are supposed to stay still?" The rest of the kids inside shook their heads in disbelief.

"I'll show you who's a chair m-oof." I stomped the offending face twice more for good measure.

"Ah, that feels good. But you know, this is rather out of character, so I'll let you guys go now." But first… I used the tickling technique on them as I got up, heading in the direction of the rope climbing.

Soon the three boys were literally rolling on the floor laughing, to the amusement of everyone there. Eventually the genjutsu ended and they panted, recovering sorely depleted oxygen stores.

I climbed up my rope with gusto, back-flipping off when I could no longer keep advancing.

At length I had had enough, so I claimed a treadmill and ran for all I was worth. Which, in my esteemed opinion, is quite a lot.

It seems I put too much effort into running, if the difficulty I am having walking home is any indication. Nevertheless, I can't build muscle if I don't try. After eating supper I went to my room, too tired to read, and went straight to bed.

**XXX**

Perhaps I should buy some weights? I think my body can handle it at this point.

Seventy was my number, a rather impressive one if I do say so myself; in push-ups that is. A long way off from 300, but I'm getting there.

As it stands, I'm the student of the year, and while Hiashi is quite good, only the genius of Minato really threatens that position. Kushina, however, places no stock in class rankings it seems, mercilessly taunting him, and even crushing him in taijutsu spars when he accepts her challenges; which, more often than not, he does.

"I want to see three of each of you!" Aoki yelled without warning, he often did this now, telling us to give him forty in the middle of a lecture and similar.

I preformed the bunshin, making two illusory copies of myself.

"I want to hear a high five, no asking friends for help on this one." That's new, but impossibly simple, I slapped my hands together twice, for effect.

It was a simple mind game, first he makes you create clones that aren't solid, and then he tells you to high five audibly. No rule that you can't do it on your own self without clones though.

The Hyuuga twins saw a different loop-hole, high fiving each other instantly and without any words.

Once everyone had completed the assignment we were returned to our seats.

"Who remembers the name of the second Tsuchikage?"

"Mu."

"Who knows the term for Kiri's Kage?"

"Mizukage," That was Minato, interesting.

"Who can tell me when the next war will break out?"

I raised my hand, "Within the next twelve years."

"What makes you so sure, Uchiha?"

"I could tell you, but it'd go way over your head."

"Try me."

Ugh, that was stupid of me, now I have to think of a reason.

"Because the hidden villages each believe themselves to be superior, eventually one of them will make a move on neutral ground, resulting in a skirmish which gets blown out of proportion until its full-blown war. Or else, one of the villages will outright invade a different one, causing immediate embroilment." Good thing I have a water bottle; that was quite the speech.

"How astute, indeed, war will break out in your lifetimes kids, so be ready." Aoki sported a wicked grin as he said so.

**XXX**

I chuckled as I looked at my cards, causing the other players to look at me appraisingly. The chuckles increased in volume as I knew that the other's called my bluff, too bad for them I'm bluffing that I'm bluffing.

Shin'Ichi put in ten tokens, raising by five, with narrowed eyes.

I put in my own ten, not willing to raise the stakes just yet. By the end of the round betting was up to nine-teen just to check.

I laid onto my face an obviously faked grin as I went all-in. While everyone 'knew' I wasn't good for it they weren't so sure about each other. In the end, two of the six folded and the rest went all-in.

"Club straight, 7-jack," I announced proudly, easily defeating the rather mundane hands of the rest.

Gambling was stupid, really stupid, but fun. Not when the stakes were real money though; then I folded right away. I've said it before, I'm a penny pincher.

Next was taijutsu, no spars today, however. Merely instruction and correction, you went through the kata's and teachers went through, telling you of errors and even using you as an example for the class. Which could be ultra-embarrassing if you were the example of what not to do.

Fortunately, the teachers rarely bothered me, knowing I knew exactly what I was doing. Not that I was the exception, by now most of the kids knew what to do, only they forgot sometimes, or got lazy.

"Uchiha-san, when do you suppose they'll teach us something new?" Hizashi asked me, mostly as a conversation starter no doubt.

"Like a technique?"

"Yes."

"Never, we're already introduced to the academy three; from here on out it'll be theory and non-chakra stuff. Like the poker."

"I see; why do you believe as much?"

"Most academy kids aren't ready for more, plus I think jonin-sensei don't like it when their kids know way more."

"Interesting." Yes, my friend, it really is.

"Still, nothing saying you can't look up all the E-rank stuff you want at the library."

"I see, not much that ninja use is actually E-rank though."

"No it's not, but it's fairly easy to convince the library man to give you a D-rank pass."

"Oh?"

"I speak from experience, just impress the guy a little and boom, D-rank. C-rank stuff you have to be a real ninja with an ID to get at though."

"Makes sense, thank you very much, Uchiha-san."

"It was no trouble Hizashi-san."

**XXX**

I sighed as I drank the last of the broth from the rooster I had butchered, it was almost nostalgic now.

To explain, I felt really bad for killing a chicken for no reason than to soak myself in its blood so after I had washed it and skinned it I made some broth with the meat. The meat itself was way too tough for a clan-boy like me so I had chicken broth only. I sealed it up in my liquid storage scroll to keep it safe and fresh, and then drank some whenever I felt like it.

Now, I've run out, all too soon.

And so, with the broth all gone, my self-imposed dead-line has been met. I shall now go buy weights, not as much as Lee had, to be sure, but enough to make my muscles do some work.

Buying weights was actually incredibly easy, seeing as it's rather popular in a ninja town like this. Strapping them on was harder, if still elementary.

But now I see why weight training isn't more popular than it already is, it throws everything way off.

My kunai still hit the target, if farther than where I aimed than they should, but the shuriken… way off sometimes. Like a whole two feet off, which might not sound like much, but ninja are precision fighters.

Nonetheless, for the added muscle mass I shall continue. Now for protein! I wonder; do they have protein powder here?

"Welcome to Konoha General Store east, how may I help you?"

"Do you guys carry protein powder?"

"Of course, two aisles to the left from the far wall."

I am amazed; Naruto-verse is so messed up, such a mix of modern and ancient that it's crazy. It works for me though.

Let's see… Miso flavor? This really is crazy. Vanilla or chocolate please. Aha! Chocolate here I come.

"That'll be twenty ryo."

Stingy! I sullenly handed over the money, toting the huge cylinder of protein as I walked home. Needless to say, I regretted not waiting on the weights by the end of the journey.

Now let's see here… milk, perfect. Fridges are so convenient; I stirred my now chocolate protein milk, watching the colors blend with faux interest.

As I drank I swished the mixture in my mouth, not bad. I finished the glass, draining the dregs until the very end, I then put in some tap water, swirling the glass and drinking the diluted milk as a finisher.

After washing out my cup I hauled the marginally lighter container to my room, stuffing it in a corner thereof.

The next day, I paid a visit to my blacksmith friend, "You done yet, sir?"

"Yeah yeah, I was done yesterday."

"I see; I apologize for the trouble."

"Never mind that, you going to buy some lead with that or are you coming here every time you need more?"

"I'll buy some lead, the cheapest."

"It's all the same to me."

"Forty ryo kid, no arguments."

"Forty? I'll need to save for months now, honestly." I paid the man and took my goods, grumbling about greedy blacksmiths the whole while.

Forty may not seem like a lot but to a kid like me, it's everything.

Back at home, I filled my chicken-skin bag with bullets. Now though, I was out of money, so stopping up the end would have to wait, on second thought; it's probably easier to just make the blacksmith forge me a new barrel.

Wasting hundreds on little projects like this will be the death of me, seriously. For now though, I need to find the method I'm going to use to propel my bullets. Gun powder could work, but it's a dead giveaway. Fuinjutsu would be ideal, but it's going to take time to design a working seal.

With the money I have now, making a reusable seal is impossible, so explosive tag? Problem is, I have no idea how to compress seals and sticking an entire note down the barrel is out. Maybe if I just made it the most diminutive I could? It's worth a shot.

With my Sharingan active I looked over the instructions for the explosive note, taking in the look of the seal especially.

Then on a little piece of paper, around 1/12 of the size of a regular explosive note I wrote the seal carefully with a tiny quill.

I held the tag up to the sun, checking it over for mistakes. Seal-work is like carving, one mistake and the whole thing is ruined.

"Katsu!" I yelled from a good fifteen feet away; an audible bang greeted my cry and a blade of grass went flying.

I went over and inspected the damage, not bad, too bad it took thirty minutes to make the thing. That's horrible, for all the good a gun that takes thirty minutes to make ammo for is, I might as well shoot my own foot!

I needed a way to mass produce the tags; unfortunately, there are not short cuts in fuinjutsu. Which meant that the gun would be nothing more than a hobby, at best.

I felt like pulling my hair out, the last thing that went well was buying weights.

I found my short whip and went outside to the training ground; perhaps some whipping would take my mind of things.

In short order I had worked up a sweat, lashing out with an unconcerned frown. I began to sing in English as my spirits rose with the workout, ignoring my new accent that had went unnoticed.

Really, it's been way to long since I used my original language, the L's come out funny and it sounds somewhat wrong. At least I still remember how to write in English.

On a side note, it's amazing how long songs last in your memory; music really is a power that crosses worlds. Heh, it really does; I smiled as I continued long past supper time finally going back in when I noticed Fugaku staring at me.

"What?" I asked him as I walked by.

"You were singing…"

"So?"

"You never sing."

"I guess I don't, eh? Maybe I should again sometime."

"Sing in intelligible words next time, otouto."

"They are intelligible, just not around here." I answered cryptically with a smile. Fugaku simply shook his head, following after me to the house.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: It's actually just saying I don't own Naruto, but it's **_**called **_**Disclaimer**

Chapter Seven,

I am not proud of myself, indeed, I am distinctly aware that both Itachi and Kakashi wer- will be-more genius then I.

I am, however, proud of Fugaku, for the reason that he recently passed the Konoha chunin exams. Now to find a present for him; actually this was his 2nd attempt, so something related to the number two?

"Fugaku-nii, what do you want as your chunin present from me?"

"Want? A challenge, a real chance to test my skills," Ho, quite entranced to be a chunin are we? But I daresay, he is a real adult now, my tiny body stands no chance.

"I doubt I could present even an obstacle to one of Konoha's honored chunin." I gave a mocking bow.

"You like to sell yourself short."

"On the contrary, I would prefer to not sell myself at all, no matter my height." It's amusing to taunt others, though I wouldn't do it with someone I am a stranger to.

"Figure of speech, anyway, how did I do?"

"I think you should be ready to take over clan leadership within eight years."

"That's horribly indirect, how did I do in the chunin exams?"

"You were clearly the strongest contender, I admire your performance." To be frank, I think Fugaku is the most powerful chunin in the village. He is still a proud person though, so he dislikes not being the leader. Hopefully we can curb that portion of his personality, as pride really is a big problem.

"That's more like it, little brother." He answered with a smile.

"Still, don't feel too good about yourself."

"Isn't wisdom a thing for the old?"

"I am old; I've got back pain, even. Anyway, are you going to continue to be an active ninja, or are you joining the police force?"

"Father left the choice to me… I think I'll join the police force." Plus, if he's an MP he'll be home more regularly.

"I agree, that way you can earn a rank and get some experience for when you take over."

"Hn," With a twinge of agreement was his reply.

At this point I am eight-and-a-half, putting Fugaku at fifteen. While late to be promoted to chunin it certainly was not bad for Nii-san, as he has plenty of real experience and skill. Unsurprisingly, Fugaku-nii has 3-tomoe in his Sharingan and a number of powerful fire jutsu in his arsenal.

"How's the academy, otouto?"

"It's good, although the ninjutsu is redundant."

"Of course, you can probably do them with a single hand seal at this point."

"Your praise is heart-warming, I can indeed."

"Let's go eat, kid."

"I would feign offense, but I see no reason to humor you."

After a large meal of Nii-san's favorite, I found myself wishing for a television, or board game. On that note, creating board games was once a thing I did long ago, perhaps this family would appreciate such a gesture? It's worth the couple of hours it takes.

Waving off my family I made the not-so-long journey to my little library, where plenty of paper was available. Tape, was tape a thing in this world, it seemed likely.

I quickly crafted the map for my personal favorite of my creations – though it was not my invention – and then realized I needed pieces for each player. Coins would be the traditional way, but I had no idea if there were more than one kind.

Bah! This whole project was a waste; I was an Uchiha catering to Uchiha. Something like a retractable blade would meet with more success.

I filed away the half-finished game, just in case I wanted it at some point, and abruptly left the room.

**XXX**

I really needed a novel to read, life was getting dull, what with all the training, eating, sleeping, and schooling. It's not good for a growing boy like me to have no play in their life.

But, I had a problem, playing was inefficient and served no real purpose, and I hated that. It was of no consequence anyway, the academy even sponsors poker. So, nothing regular, I just needed a single day off.

That would actually be incredibly easy, my afternoons were free anyway, but I used them as self-imposed training hours.

Now to plan what I'm going to actually do. Heh, I know exactly who to go to.

**XX**

"Nara-kohai, I want to play shogi." Shikaku would be getting me out of my no-play zone today.

"Troublesome, why do you want to?"

"I need something fun to do, you're it."

"Fine by me, just don't complain when you do lose." He immediately began setting up a shogi board that he pulled from nowhere, to no great surprise.

At my request he explained the rules; since I had never actually played _shogi_ this was rather necessary.

I'll be the first to tell you that Nara = smart; but my wounded pride would be the first to admit that I hated losing. Thus, losing to Shikaku was both expected and frustrating, more expected though.

"You win, Shikaku-san." I had only managed to take two non-pawns from him.

I went away, five games more the loser and twice as depressed, this was not how I intended it to go. What next, an eating contest with Chouza? No, I don't think so; what I needed was to lose some more, but not at an eating contest.

**XXX**

Kushina was as obnoxious as always today, "Oi, clan-brat, I think it's time you learned your place."

"I don't learn my place, I earn it."

"Oh really, I hardly think so, in fact you're such a coward you'd refuse to fight me right here!"

"Indeed I am; I fear Aoki-sensei too much to fight you in the classroom."

"And you should. Sit down class."

"Yes, sensei!"

A lecture on the documented uses of kunai followed, to my great interest.

"Hiashi-san, how goes it?" Actually, I'm fairly sure it goes rather poorly; his overall grade has dropped by almost 4% in the last six months.

The pale-eyed Hyuuga glanced at me, "My attention has been devoted to chakra control, almost exclusively."

"Indeed, I'm sure your control must be at least twice as good as my own."

"Your compliment is not merited, Uchiha-san."

"I hardly think so; your intelligence is high, so it follows that your chakra control would be." The Hyuuga have a massive advantage in the Byakugan but I think they squander it by using it only for scouting and Jyuuken.

"My own intelligence is surpassed by our own, Uchiha-san, so if anything your control would be superior."

"Ah, but you have a distinct advantage: you can see chakra."

"Indeed, the Byakugan can."

"And so I rest my case, I hope you and your brother still spar."

"Of course, perhaps you wish for a spar yourself?"

"That was my hope, Hiashi-san."

It's somewhat curious that I call him 'Hiashi-san' whereas he calls me 'Uchiha-san' but it's simply to avoid confusion, and since the Hyuuga twins never interact with Isao, they can just call me Uchiha-san.

And now I have a spar with Hiashi lined up, no way are we doing only taijutsu, I guess the rules will be decided on the site.

**XXX**

"Hizashi-san, thank you for agreeing to referee," I thanked the younger brother.

"It is no trouble, Uchiha-san."

"Hiashi-san, rules?"

"No jutsu, only taijutsu and bukijutsu." To explain, bukijutsu refers to pretty much any weapon use. While these both end in 'jutsu' the real _jutsu_ in common circles are nin and genjutsu.

This would be hard; perhaps it's time for a field test for my precious whip? I unsealed it.

Hiashi narrowed his eyes, activating his Byakugan wordlessly, "I am ready, Hizashi."

"I as well, Hizashi-san."

"Then begin!" I quickly raised my right hand, ready to lash out.

Hiashi looked me over and then almost elegantly jumped forward, dodging easily my initial downward swing. I twisted my wrist after him causing the whip to careen in Hiashi's direction once more. Rapidly I lashed in and out, swinging with all my novice skill and keeping the Hyuuga heir very much on the defensive.

After I had lacerated the older twin's arms several times, I began to tire slightly, and he seemed inpatient. Hiashi threw four kunai at an impressive rate and charged in, deflecting my whip with Jyuuken. The chakra covered fingers were completely unharmed as the exceedingly precise Jyuuken knocked my whip away.

That was a weakness I'd have to look into. I jumped back, throwing shuriken and pulling my ninja whip with me in my left hand. Swapping hands back I took a kunai in my left and made a straight shot at Hiashi with the whip, the dangerous tip aggressively speeding towards the Hyuuga.

Hiashi ceased his forward rush, content to let my whip impact nothing but thin air. I brought it back in, ready to do the same once more. My less nimble left hand was meanwhile throwing kunai with all the accuracy it could, which was considerably less than my right hand could manage, another weakness to rectify.

Hiashi had used far less energy than I had so far but even though he was Hyuuga the Byakugan could only be activated so long. As far as I knew even Neji a year after graduation couldn't keep it on for much more than an hour.

This fight had lasted seven minutes so far.

Hiashi was clearly aware that he had limited time to finish this; he also knew I had yet to activate my Sharingan. The Hyuuga took a stance, breathing in and out as I watched, finally he rushed forward, deflecting or dodging all of my attacks with minimal consequence to himself.

I threw away my whip as he rushed past its effective range, drawing a kunai as I did so. The speedy blows were too much for my eyes to catch and I was unable to create distance, in a few seconds I felt pain almost all over and fell limply to the ground.

"Why did you not use your Sharingan?"

"Who says I have one?" Let it never be said that I revealed my ultimate advantage to the academy, although Hiashi was 95% sure I had it.

"You do, it's obvious."

"Oh, how so?"

"Your chakra network in the eyes is different from Isao-san's; I can say with certainty that he does not have the Sharingan, so it must be you."

"The Byakugan really does see everything, doesn't it?"

He merely nodded in reply, his Byakugan deactivating as he did so.

Although it can be blocked or countered, it really is an awesome tool.

After discussing the match, including the natural surprise because of the fact I used a whip, I wished them both a good day, informing Hizashi that I'd be asking him for a spar soon. I then picked up my weapons, and decided I needed more. More what you ask? Weapons of course.

Senbon were on the fore-front of my mind, so I visited my blacksmith friend.

"Haven't seen you in a while."

"Indeed, my money stocks were rather low after our last piece of business. I understand you sell shinobi supplies?"

"Buying ready-made? No custom order?"

"That's right, I need senbon, what do you have?"

"I've got plenty, not many shinobi use them when compared to kunai, but there are still quite a number; standard size?"

"Standard is good yes." I compared my new purchase to my senbon from Fugaku, noting with satisfaction that they were the same. Apparently, you could also buy medical senbon and heavy senbon, but I had no need for either.

After paying the money, one ryo per, I had forty senbon and a ten ryo senbon pouch. I took the products home, and naturally, began training in their use. While I had done this a while back, I certainly needed the practice, as evidenced by my less than exemplary accuracy.

Still, by the days end I had satisfactorily completed my regime. Now, I wonder if my little library has books on poison.

After bathing, and then dinner, I made my way to the library that my father had provided for my perusal.

_Non-Lethal Poisons, Basic Poison Mixing,_ and _How to Safely use Poisoned Weapons,_ were the offered titles, I quite like the fact that the names mean exactly what the book is about. _Non-Lethal_ sounds like a good first choice, then _Safely_.

The book outlined many poisons, and where to find them, as well as a few instructions and some complex poisons. A complex poison is merely a visible compound I.E mixing oil and milk is a complex substance.

The most interesting poison, dubbed _Chakra Poison,_ affected chakra control to the extent that using chakra was pretty much impossible. Unfortunately the ninja eating monster that produces it is uncommon, although the forest of death contains it.

A fairly weak and common poison though was what I would probably to using; it caused paralysis in reasonable doses and could be inhaled, if dried, or inserted into the bloodstream. It grew in every known country, resulting in its popularity. Unfortunately, the antidote was also widely known.

I highly doubt I'll ever become a poison legend like Sasori or Orochimaru, but I can make use of what is already known.

Though the book was not long, only around 100 pages, I was tired and it was getting late, so I retired to bed.

Come morning I was ready to skip school to find poisons, but then I remembered: Today was the weekend, which meant Hiroshi-sensei. This also meant no poison searching, or making, for today and tomorrow. Well, I like Hiroshi so I'll forgive him.

"Nanashi-kun, how do you feel about learning another Katon technique?"

"I perceive myself to be ready."

"Good, don't use your Sharingan for this, Katon: Fiery Beheading!"

A thin line of fire came out of Hiroshi's mouth, twisting rapidly around the dummy's 'neck', closing in and then blazing with fury upon impact. The affected section was moderately burnt and decently damaged by the small impact explosion.

"A personal favorite, this one is a real challenge to learn, I expect it'll take a month."

No kidding, this probably takes control almost on the level of chakra strings to create. Hiroshi explained the proper stance and the hand signs for the technique, filling me in on the fact that the length of the string was manipulated by the quantity of chakra used.

I gathered chakra in my belly, exhaling it while focusing on the concept and still holding the last hand seal. I instead exhaled nothing, he wasn't kidding when he said it would take a while.

Incidentally, I've never heard of this, high C-rank, jutsu before; the preparation time makes it almost impossible to use in a close range battle, but I'd say it's incredibly useful against immobilized enemies. Next justu to learn would have to be the Doton beheading thing that Kakashi uses against Sasuke.

I concentrated, carefully lining my insides with protective chakra and then again exhaled this time saying the name of the technique, "Katon: Fiery Beheading."

A wavy line of chakra that I could not see without my Sharingan exuded from my open lips, fizzling out after a few inches. As expected, controlling chakra in such a shape outside your body is quite difficult.

Now to keep at it, "Thank you very much Hiroshi-sensei."

"No trouble at all, once you've got it down, let me know; we'll be meeting like normal after this." Before he took off he corrected any visible errors in my method and gave some tips. Apparently, this isn't a common jutsu, the lack of destructive power making it unpopular among mainstream Katon users. The fact that its fire, however, makes it disliked among assassin style ninja as well.

I quite like it though, despite it similarity to a whip, or perhaps that's the reason? No matter, I'll get it down.

I spent the rest of the day alternating between eating, using my new jutsu – or trying to -, and throwing kunai with my left hand or lying down.

By the time supper rolled around I was less than proud of myself. Still, 'I learn more from my failures than my successes' is what they say, right? It's just another way of saying, "You've got no talent, but don't feel bad."

Which isn't a wrong saying either, with talent you have no control over it, so feeling bad about it is stupid, whereas with being fat you should feel bad, since you could have prevented it. Dying of starvation, however, was not something to feel bad about, since you can't control it. Well, unless you're an idiot who starves themselves when food is all around you.

On that tangent, you should feel bad about not eating dead human bodies if that's the only way to survive, somehow, I think this is flawed. Anyway, I'm very tired, another early night it is.

"Good night, Nii-san, Haha, Chichi."

"Good night, Nanashi," My father answered for the group.

"Fugaku, you really need to push harder," Were the last words I heard as I dropped off into blissful sleep.

**XXX**

For fun today, I applied a genjutsu on Kushina, who is rather weak to them, that makes her see my eyes as Hiashi's. This'll be fun.

"Oi, clan-bo-," She cut herself off as she finally saw my eyes. I should mention; I used the henge before I used the eye-to-eye genjutsu for this fine morning. Everything looked quite natural.

"How in the name of the Hokage did you get the Hyuuga's freak eyes?!"

"Do I have the Byakugan?" I asked turning with a confounded look to the rest of the class. In unison they shook their heads no, further adding to the effect.

Kushina rubbed her eye and even hit herself, enough to dispel most low-rank genjutsu I noticed, and then looked at me again. I cocked my head to the side, my now white in her sight eyes following my movements perfectly normally.

"The heck is going on? You still have them freak-eyes."

"Shall we take you to the doctor?" I asked, veiling my mocking tone only thinly.

"Take who to the doctor?"

"Good morning, Aoki-sensei!" The class chorused as said man entered the room fully.

"Ah, Uzumaki-san seems to think I have the Byakugan." I explained, lacing my voice with concern and sheer befuddlement.

In response the teacher narrowed his eyes at me and then Kushina, scowling after he did so.

"Hyuuga Hiashi, as class rep you have the honor, take Uzumaki to the nurse." Yoshiro said shortly, causing said Hyuuga to get up with all his grace and gesture for Kushina to exit; she did so, at length.

As Kushina left I allowed my chakra in her brain to leave, no evidence now.

"Now that that's over, we can get down to business, today we'll learn exactly what clans live in Konoha and their specialties."

"From the top, the Aburame, a Noble clan, are a clan of insect users…" He continued and I allowed my mind to stay half-focused for only minor clans, the main ones I already knew about.

Incidentally, no clans I did not know of popped up. This made for a rather boring class hour, though I kept my mind occupied in other ways. How much should I change things? Should I even try anything at all? No, Nagato needed to be dealt with, one way or another, and I didn't have much time.

Jiraiya was his sensei, so I'm guessing Nagato was taught by Jiraiya before said Sannin taught Minato. But what if I was wrong? What if Jiraiya only went to Ame after Minato was already a jonin. It was a real dilemma, if Yahiko died there would be no chance I could swerve Nagato away from becoming Pein.

And wasn't Danzo somehow involved in that whole spiel? Gah, I wish I had studied Naruto history more. Still, relative to Obito and Orochimaru I rank that rather low. Since Akatsuki wouldn't really go after the Biju without 'Madara' saying so, all I needed to do was either kill Obito when he was born, or stop him from coming in contact with Madara.

Choices, choices. The answer was simple; I needed a tracking seal, something to place on Obito that would tell me where he was at all times. Still, I don't think there is such a thing; sure, maybe one to point direction, but actual location? That'd be a wonder.

The simplest option was to convince Minato to teach me the Hiraishin once he learned it, or steal it from him, barring that. _If_ I could do this, I could feasibly plant one on Obito and then check up on him every once in a while.

Still, the simpler option was to get rid of Obito altogether whilst stopping Sakumo from killing himself. This way I wouldn't be able to predict anything, freeing me from obligation.

If I could pick, I'd want either Orochimaru or Hatake Sakumo as my jonin-sensei, then I could, perhaps, influence them. If the snake boy didn't do his doggone human experiments, then Sarutobi wouldn't make him a missing nin.

This whole web of possibilities was all rather mind-boggling. Still, the most all-encompassing and convenient option was simple: KILL OBITO; this was foremost in my mind. One good kid for the sake of many, it was sick maybe, but it was needed.

Without him, no Kyuubi attack, no Biju hunting organization, no massacre. It was simple, it was needed, it was horrible! What right did I have to take away a boy's life? What right did he have to cause the death of thousands? None, but I had the knowledge, I had the right to use it.

My course was set, Obito had to die, even if the 3rd shinobi war was lost because of it, the consequences were too dire.

But that's all assuming this is cannon-based, what if this is an AU? This is all so complicated; I'll deal with it when it comes. Should I even interfere? If I 'died' now everything would be 'ok', but what's life without risk? It wouldn't be mortal life, that's for sure.

Eventually the class-time ended, breaking me out of my revere.

"Ninjutsu, maggots! Get your lazy rears down here, and show it."

"Henge first, dimwits," Aoki announced, with henge we did it all together, everyone holding theirs until he was done inspecting.

"Everyone here will look like my assistant there in three seconds, clear?"

"Crystal, sir!"

"Go!" I flashed through the two hand-seals I needed for the technique, and transformed into a hopefully perfect rendition of Yoshiro's assistant teacher.

After exactly three seconds the slowest student had transformed. Aoki paced down the line, looking over each fake carefully, very carefully. As he inspected each student, how he knew who was where escaped me, he marked down something on his clipboard.

"Uchiha Nanashi, my assistant's pants are a single shade darker." Well sue me, he's in the shadow, plus no matter how I look at it, the other kid's henges look the same.

"Yes, sensei," Much as I hate agreeing with things I most certainly do _not_ agree with, I doubt any of us are up for one of my stubborn arguments.

"Uzumaki Kushina, my assistant's nose is not that red." Yoshiro pointed out with narrowed eyes, I glanced at said nose and almost burst out laughing, a clown nose, really Kushina?

The rest of the class, minus the Hyuuga boys, had less self-control, most laughing outright and some chuckled, needless to say, some henges were broken. This culminated in group punishment for Kushina and everyone whose henge dispelled. Of course, I was rather happy after this occurred, my lack of physical laughter scoring me some points.

Gambling resulted in my utter defeat, my pride from the previous session being completely crushed.

We ended with some running around the track, after which we were encouraged to use the gym, and, being only slightly sweaty, I availed myself of the offer.

One thing about being young, so little perspiration it's crazy.

To my immediate concern, the three bullies from a while ago are very much in shape and very much present.

"Oi, Uchiha, come here," The tallest one called me over.

Not one to wimp out, I strutted over, "Yes?"

"We's been thinking…"

"You've been thinking…"

"We want a rematch, one at a time, fair like."

"Oh? I'm more than happy to spar." I made sure to _not _sound condescending, from the look of things I succeeded. The one with the lightest hair handed over a wad of cash to the short one, grumbling about unpredictable clan-brats or something.

"You can call me Ichi."

"And call me Ni." I think I see where this is going, and I don't like it.

"And I'm San," The short one finished.

"Together we are! Teammates for life."

"We need a better catch phrase."

"We need a pose."

"We need to be popular."

"Are we going to spar or are you guys going to argue?" Their personalities seem distinctly different since… how long ago was our last encounter anyway? No matter, they might be a challenge.

"Ah right, there's a sparring ring just outside, I'll lead," Ni spoke up. I followed the boy outside, where a very official looking fighting ring was present.

Ichi stepped in, jumping over the elastic ropes that lined the ring; I lifted them up and walked in, "Considering the nature of our surroundings I'm going to assume just taijutsu."

"Yeah, we'll settle this like men," Ichi answered forcefully.

"Considering that we are male yet not yet men it's only slightly appropriate, do come at me." I ended my little speech with the sign of confrontation, the polite thing to do.

Ichi made no such gesture, instead stretching his muscles in preparation, seeing to reason to wait I jumped forward, landing a solid kick before the surprised boy could react.

"Oi! No one said begin hot-head."

"You never mentioned that someone would, I took advantage of the loophole." I do so like taking advantage of loopholes, especially when they're verbal.

The tallest of the three 'Teammates' snarled back at me, refusing to even admit he was injured by my attack. A foolish decision, it's always better to accept and work with your own body, I'd know.

Ichi slipped into the academy stance with an ease that spoke of unremitting practice and drill, cute. Knowing this, he's probably only fought fellow academy style users, I took the interceptor stance.

I made the come here gesture with my right pinky, syncing it with waggled eyebrows. Ichi simply took it as the signal for making his move. Initially, he took me by surprise by using the Kata's in a working but unconventional order, however, I do not focus on speed in name only.

After Ichi had launched a particularly wide kick I took the opening, giving him a forceful double palm while taking a glancing fist in return. He's obviously been working on his strength; it smarts a little.

Ichi stumbled backwards, finally catching himself on the elastic material that lined the ring; he dodged left just as I attacked with a vicious uppercut, saving him from sure defeat. The move cost him slightly though, my foot-work spinning me around in plenty of time as I struck out with a left straight, Ichi's hasty defense, however, succeeded in taking the blow.

With the boy very much on the defensive now I began kicking fruitfully, landing several hard blows that finally incapacitated him.

I rolled my shoulders, feeling kind of good about that fight, my skills have certainly advanced, more importantly, so has my reach.

"Who is next in line?" I asked politely.

"Me, clan-boy!" Ni shouted as he literally slid under the 'railing' and stood up with nary a stumble after he had crossed the obstruction. If showing off was the point, he got 9.9/10.

"I'll say when to start!" San yelled eagerly.

I simply stood in my position, Ni opting to pace around loosely. Within ten seconds San's yell of "Begin!" sent me flying at the enemy with a serious kick. To his credit, even though surprised, Ni moved out of the way, earning himself the right to only be spun around by my full weight.

Of course, it had to be Ni who liked such flashy things as spins and such, so he spun, but with a leg kicking in an aggressive fashion at my position. My eyes nearly widened but they didn't have time to, instead I somersaulted backwards, effectively avoiding Ni's maneuver.

"Not bad, kid, but not good enough!" The boy announced loudly as he came in with a cart-wheel kick.

The power was good but the speed was lacking, I easily avoided his kick, but was unable to counter.

After I had knocked away some of the - former?- bullies punches he again spun, this time on his own, with a spin kick, using my shorter frame to my own advantage I slipped under his leg, and gave the older male a knee to the groin.

He, understandably, yowled at the pain my less than honorable blow having done him in. To finish things, I punched him out cold.

"San-san, you're up." I informed tonelessly as I unceremoniously dumped Ni off the slightly raised platform.

The shortest of the trio nodded fiercely, clearly wanting to avenge his brethren. He stepped into the ring without fan-fare and looked at me.

"Any time," I smirked confidently, however, despite my bravado my stamina was low; Ichi's fight especially had taken energy out of me.

San, though I doubted it was his real name, watched me warily for a full minute, unconsciously letting me get some much needed rest. At the end of that period, though, I attacked skillfully injuring his wrists in particular.

San, however, turned out to be a terrible match up for me; he had plenty of stamina and even more pain tolerance. After I had exhausted myself on his defense for I don't know how long, the boy struck, leveling me with a straightforward punch that I should've been able to dodge.

However, I was too tired to move quickly, and I found myself on the ground.

I spat out some blood from a cut gum, this sucked. San instantly straddled me and began the traditional punch out, if this weren't taijutsu only I might've won by now.

Heaving myself with a great effort I wrapped my legs around his neck, but I was too weak and he didn't go down. Defeat was mine, "I yield." I somehow said around his unremitting head blows.

It hurt all over; still, it _did_ take three guys older than me to do it.

"You punch like a girl, these two suck." San replied as he cautiously got off of me.

"Ah well, even girls can punch hard." I'll be the second to admit, Kushina hits harder than I do, her skill is somewhat lacking though. In case you wondered, the first to admit it would be Kushina herself.

I was far to wasted to do any more than eat and sleep for the rest of the day. My mother was kind enough to call over a healer, the Uchiha had only a few, and she took care of my bruises and cracked bones.

In the morning I was quite well, and ready for my fight with Hizashi, though I had a little lingering soreness. Class was mostly normal, though today Minato was quite loud about being Hokage; I think he read something inspiring.

In true party crashing fashion, today was the day for the obstacle course, I'd have to put my plans for Hizashi's spar back a day. A certain Aomine Ryota had the honor of being first. Five minutes later the next kid was sent out, then the next.

Finally the count came to me, and I jumped forward. Curiously, Minato holds the current record, though I find it remarkable to believe it's not Hizashi or Hiashi.

I licked my lips as I slid under a falling log, two trees farther back than normal, interesting. I nimbly jumped over a deep pit, studiously ignoring the pleas of a fellow student who had not been so fortunate. They don't make this easy.

A wickerwork with blunt pokers came up from the ground at moderate speed; it was reminiscent of Vietnam to be sure. Though less fatal then the alleged traps that were commonplace there.

A noose sought to capture me and pick me up but it failed spectacularly. Somehow I think chunin or genin are seriously on the scene during this whole session, sadistically resetting traps.

Finally I came to the now redundant rapids that churned with fury over the somewhat dangerous rocks. I had, by now, refined a method of crossing that was startlingly simple, a chakra enhanced jump. While my skill with said technique was nothing impressive, it did get the job done in peaceful environments like this.

Now it was the home stretch, I came out only three minutes after Isao, proving why I was the best of my year.

After this we had taijutsu and genjutsu theory, finally ending the day with arithmetic. Now I could get to those poisons.

I excused myself from Konoha proper, instead foraging in the surrounding forests, where plants that produced incredible substances were not uncommon. I doubt poison will ever be my specialty, but I do feel like it's a useful subject.

Not unexpectedly there's a shop in Konoha that'll identify the poison you've brought in for a small fee. Incidentally they also buy and sell poisons. Orochimaru was the major funder of the institution, I noticed, though Tobirama founded it.

Still, I learned that my three hours of labor had earned me a good bit of paralysis poison and also some that just caused itching.

I sold them my non-extracted poison - meaning it was still inside the plant - in exchange for some prepared poison, combat ready in red letters right on it. Maybe the poison mixing book has some instructions on how to remove the stuff from plants and animals.

To my great and utter delight, it did. After supper I had investigated, finding the book and reading it. I found the entire thing interesting, although some of the stuff was decidedly tedious.

After reading the entire volume, I found that the time had gone right over my head, it now being midnight. The candle I had been reading by was on its last legs so I snuffed it out and went to bed.

Dreams of murdering children assaulted me, finally morphing into an intriguing zombie nightmare. I woke up all too soon, the abrupt ending of the movie-like dream upsetting me to a degree.

Of course, I would have classified the thing as action/adventure as my mind simply is incapable of imagining 'horror'.

Breakfast was eaten and I left to go to school, blowing bits of smoke and changing head-seals as I went. The reason for this was obviously the Fiery Beheading practice that I had been neglecting to a painful degree.

XXX

Two months and a win over Hizashi later I was finally capable of using the thing, taking inordinate pleasure in my belated success.

"It took forever, Hiroshi-sensei."

"Yes it did, I find myself wondering why you took so long."

"Well, I did spend lots of my afternoons poison gathering."

"You are pretty random Nanashi-kun, you sure you don't want to pick something to specialize in?"

"Eh, that's for chunin."

"Indeed, I suppose it is."

"What's on the agenda today?"

"3-tomoe Sharingan is! Get to it."

"Uh, how?" I asked, with uncharacteristic unintelligence.

"Use your 2-tomoe for a long, long time, and learn techniques with it activated." It should be mentioned that he does mean learn, without 3 tomoe the 'stealing' ability of the Sharingan is limited.

"Will you teach me then?" I asked.

"To an extent, we'll do some sparring and stuff too."

The technique he taught me was a D-rank Katon technique Burning Touch, the flaw with it was the chakra cost, rather high for D-rank, and power, not much damage was done. In actual combat it also had the tendency to burn the user.

After I had learned the rather simple technique, Hiroshi put ointment on my burns and we began our taijutsu spar.

With my Sharingan, I lasted longer than before; Hiroshi finally putting me down with a two-foot kick that knocked me down for minutes. I kept my Sharingan on in spite of the wastefulness of doing so during this time.

At length I got up, and then began throwing kunai, my form as text-book perfect as possible, yet loose enough for real combat. Eventually supper came around, and Hiroshi sensei and I went in for said meal.

"How was he, Hiroshi-san?" Father asked bluntly.

"He'll get there," Was the younger Uchiha's cryptic answer.

"Good, you've done well, Nanashi, continue to do so."

"Of course, Father, I won't let you down."

"Let's eat," Was his answer. And so we did.

**A/N: So we see some progression and a little bit of 'my'(Nanashi's) strength, next chapter should be fun but it might be a dud. Don't hold your breath.**

**I experienced some writers block on this chapter, I apologize - if only slightly - for the later than normal release. **

**Again, all reviews are welcome, though flames should stay in the fireplace, any bone picking is welcome, I like it when you all crush my plotline with well-timed depressing jutsu. Seriously though, please tell me what you think.**


	8. Chapter 8, Genin!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

Chapter Eight

I continued my 3-tomoe training with Hiroshi-sensei, taking time out of my personal schedule to train extra with him on week-day afternoons.

My 3rd year of shinobi academy ended in a few months and I still did not have the thing.

"Hiroshi-sensei, do you think I need more theoretical knowledge for it?"

"Seems unlikely, but we _have _tried a lot and the amount of time should be plenty by now."

"Have your Sharingan active, from the 2-tomoe to the 3-tomoe the differences are obvious, while the two only sees chakra in a limited fashion the three can see chakra in an opponent's body for a couple of inches."

"Is it then possible to see the chakra system?"

"Unfortunately no, for whatever reason only the Byakugan can see it. But, what you can see is the chakra pool, and enough to see how they are channeling the chakra, hence, skilled Uchiha can copy techniques."

"But if you can't channel your chakra the same way it's not possible to copy a jutsu?"

"That's right, this really comes down to chakra control; if they have S-class and you only have B, their most complex jutsu is out of your reach."

"I see, so is it possible to bypass your elemental affinity?"

"Yes, that's actually the primary advantage of the Sharingan; you can reverse engineer elemental manipulation."

"Interesting, so you look at how another person does it and get a non-personalized affinity."

"Correct, this is why copied techniques almost always cost more chakra."

"Ok, what else?" I asked, understanding this aspect, Hiroshi looked pensive for a couple seconds before replying.

"The enhanced vision comes to another level, allowing you to predict even finger movement by a small margin."

Basically, you can see the ligaments moving in real time, and can know a split second ahead of time that the finger will move. With the two-tomoe it goes as far as arm movement.

"But," The man continued, "It does you no good if you can't react, it's why Uchiha sometimes come off as high-strung."

Because they are, they train to be. It's not proven, but I think being high-strung all the time shortens your life a little. Well, for a ninja cutting five years off your natural life for a 10% better chance of living through the battlefield is a steal.

"Of course, the Sharingan has a cost, while we don't let outsiders know it, it's been proven that it limits the senses of touch and taste, only slightly though, nothing to worry about."

Of course, if all it needed was some chakra everyone would have it on all the time, seriously. Well, it sometimes creeps people out I guess.

While this has been interesting it's not something totally new, I've made plenty of speculation on the workings of my eyes.

"Also," I perked up, "The fact that the eye has chakra running through it makes control in the region much easier, this applies practically by making Sharingan genjutsu that much more effective and subtle."

Huh, so the Sharingan makes eye-to-eye genjutsu easier. Actually that makes sense, when you think about it, in cannon Naruto people got so scared of the eye's genjutsu that they seriously looked at the guys' waist.

"Unsurprisingly, it also makes countering eye-to-eye genjutsu exponentially easier."

"I see, is that all?"

"No it's not, but the rest is forbidden."

Aha, so he knows of the mangekyo, well, unless something else is forbidden when it comes to the Sharingan.

"In that case, thank you for the information," I bowed slightly; nothing was different about my eyes to my knowledge. Not the first time I've been disappointed.

I then left, to devote my attention to fuinjutsu. In this particular field I had made progress after a fashion, speed; I could now write nearly six times as fast while suffering from only 10% reduced accuracy, this was perfect for such things as explosive tags, which can be slightly flawed and still work due to their simplicity.

Of course, to someone who knows nothing of fuinjutsu a mere explosive tag is impossibly complex, and yet, it's the easiest and most common use of the art. It's a daunting subject, but the knowledge of its impressive results drove me on.

I'd also crafted a number of the mini tags, for use when I can actually get a breech-loading barrel crafted. My liquid storage scrolls work well enough, but slight errors can ruin the delicate balance, and I've mostly been focusing on offensive stuff anyway.

The fact that Suiton jutsu is years away also contributed; in any case, it's been listed and put in the Uchiha Archive of Techniques, this particular location I have no access to, unfortunately.

My stock of poison has grown, and I've personally felt most of its effectiveness. Overall I feel much more combat ready.

Except for the blasted Sharingan, stupid thing won't evolve. Ah well, the things just a crutch anyway, none of the Hokages even had a doujutsu, though that doesn't tell you much.

I wonder what having the Byakugan is like, or perhaps more interestingly, the Rinnegan. Well, it's unlikely I'll ever know, but I'd gladly give my left eye in return. Come to think of it, why don't the Hyuuga and Uchiha have an eye exchange program? That way there'd be Hyuuga with a single Sharingan and Uchiha with a Byakugan; now _that_ would be interesting.

Of course, it'll never happen, no way would either clan give up their prized eyes.

I completed the explosive tag I had been working on, noting with satisfaction that despite my distracted state it had come out very well.

I read the D-rank fuinjutsu book I had many times over before returning it to the Konoha Archive. With a firm grounding in the basics and some skill with simple stuff I think it's time I look into harder material.

Unfortunately, I have no way of procuring such items, and so here I am, churning out tags and scrolls with what little ink I have left.

The fact is, my fuinjutsu will never progress beyond a certain level, but even with low-rank stuff you're that much more versatile.

I took my whip out, looking it over skeptically. Was there a way to use fuinjutsu on it? It's a whip so most likely no, however the tip can be affected by my talents.

I carefully wrote a reinforcement matrix onto the tip of my short whip, experimentally whipping out with it. Now, if fuinjutsu can't work on it, what can? Chakra certainly can, as evidenced by the Dragon Fire technique.

I cautiously channeled raw chakra into the whip; it instantly began to give off a slight aura of power and invincibility, how intriguing. I put in more, until I could feel the drain, lashing out I utterly cut through the post I was practicing on. Makes sense, but still incredibly useful.

Theoretically, if my control is good the cost for jutsu is reduced, time for water walking.

I went out to the river I had used for my liquid storage scroll years before, and after finding a calm spot, I began my attempts.

My skills at this particular exercise are rather pathetic, I have decided. This is obvious because… I am soaked from head to toe; I really should learn to swim. I feel better about myself though, I can stand on water for one second! Woot!

Yeah, this is really sad, time to dredge up memories of fan-fictions that described this exercise. Thinking… nope, nothing I haven't _tried_ to do. Practice makes perfect they say; I kept at it.

Time flew, and my clothes got no wetter, only because they were completely wet already. Nevertheless, the land of fire is warm, and I felt no serious discomfort.

Eager to avoid the possibility of 'catching a cold' I took a hot bath before dinner. At said meal I ate a good portion, though with all due manners.

Tomorrow would be a school day; I was determined to be ready, therefore I went to bed after reading a short segment of the Poison Mixing book I had access to.

**XXX**

"Good morning, Hiashi-san, Hizashi-san." I greeted my maybe-friends; they've actually got warmer if anything over the years, though it could be that I'm just better at reading them.

"Good morning, Uchiha-san." They replied, each in turn.

After the pleasantries I excused myself and moved to my most amusing classmate.

"A fine day is it not, Uzumaki-san?"

"It's a fine day to smash you to the ground, clan-freak!" My, my, now it's a combination insult.

"Ah, but any day is fine for that isn't it though?"

She narrowed her eyes at me, acutely aware of my fondness for wordplays, "Yeah." She finally conceded.

"Indeed, but as I say, you can try, and you can fail, good-luck Uzumaki-san," I waved over my shoulder as I left her.

Moving on to the next of my acquaintances, I found Minato poring over a mathematics scroll.

"Looking to get ahead?"

He glanced up at me briefly, saying a short greeting and mumbling, "Yeah," he went back to his book.

"In that case, I'll leave you to it." Most of our math focuses on geometry and vectors, addition and division class math already behind us. I don't know how, but kids here can keep up with the high-school level work well enough.

Maybe being ninja - even if only in training - boosts efficiency? That's why civilians like Tazuna aren't impressive. Of course, this doesn't hold water, it being far to flimsy of a theory. I think it's good enough to hold sour cream though.

In any case, it seems Aoki-sensei is here.

"Sit down maggots!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and smartly found a seat.

"One word: Chakra Control." Sorry to point this out, but that's two words. Is this a test? Worth a shot.

"That's two words, with respect, sir."

"Uchiha Nanashi… what makes you think you have the ability to question me? My word is the law, punk!"

"There are things greater than the law, such as a constitution."

"You're quite the little thinker aren't you? My office after school, Uchiha. Now, where were we?"

"Ah, yes, chakra-control, what does this mean to you? A means to an end? A tool? Some dumb thing that horrid teacher is talking about!?"

"No! None of that is right, chakra control is simple; it's what we're doing today."

I almost cracked up, this guy has serious humor. I have to say though, I doubt the academy has anything to offer on this particular subject, but, an open mind is needed.

"We're going to have something very special, the long thought lost… leaf exercise!"

Everyone here had already mastered said exercise, so, to say that this was less than enthusing would be an understatement. However, with all due conspiracy theory mentality, I happily marched over and pulled a leaf off the tree with my forehead. An old trick to wow kids.

It's a fact, outside the Konoha Ninja Academy several trees are grown, solely for their leaves.

Following my example, the rest of the kids went out and stuck a leaf to some part of their body. Yoshiro merely stared. I cocked my head to the side, then shrugged, if this wasn't an overseen event I'd have fun with it.

Grass walking, my new 'fun thing' for chakra control was born of a certain thought: "If you can walk on water, why not grass?"

Of course, I can do neither, so far. Grass walking is also really difficult because grass is simply not strong enough to hold human weight, nor does it have surface tension like water. So how _can _it work, you ask? Easy in theory actually, you just have to stiffen the grass with your own chakra, and then spread your weight out over several blades.

Unfortunately, I can't do it yet, I tried it on my hand though, it'll work in time.

"Uchiha Nanashi, I don't care what you think you're doing; leaf exercise is on the menu!" Aoki yelled fiercely, honestly, can't he make an exception for me? No he can't, it's like the Oliver Twist conundrum, if one gets more, all get more.

I sighed and lazily attached a leaf to each finger, returning to my grass exercises.

At length, the chakra control period of today ended, with no notable advancements in my theory. Perhaps you had to be a Sage to grass walk? Since it's so closely associated with nature? I somehow think not, in fact, I'd go so far as to say that nature chakra can be used without instruction from summons.

Of course, that'd take a while, but immortality is not out of reach with the possibilities chakra holds. I wonder; is this how Orochimaru feels? Knowing that it's possible, having an impossible dream that actually _could _come to fruition.

Although, his chosen method of immortality was amateurish at best; if I _do _get him as my sensei I'll let him know how I feel.

Next was biology, my worst subject under the sun, but after the chicken butchering anatomy theory doesn't really gross me out at least. Still, way too much to know with biology, I mean, not only animals, but plants as well? That's a lot of stuff to know.

After this it was taijutsu spars, I was paired off against some nameless classmate who was obviously cursing his luck at having to fight me. Eh, let's go easy on this dude.

"What's your name, kid?" I asked, surreptitiously ignoring that he was my age.

"Ieyasu, no last name."

"Ah, I see, then, let's have a good spar, Ieyasu-san."

What arrogant handicap shall I give myself? Aha! Only kicks, shoulders, and head-buts, that'll do nicely.

After the fight had officially begun I clasped my hands behind my back firmly, settling into a hard look at the same time.

"Don't underestimate me!"

Ouch, that's a loss flag. I mean, really, only fools yell such an obviously self-demeaning thing.

Ieyasu, a medium kid with dark-brown hair and a small nose, charged, impossibly slowly to even my normal eyes. He came in close, or rather, he tried to, my right leg was quite offensive when it wanted to be.

I rushed at the boy, body slamming him to the ground, then turning around and kicking his butt. He fell forward into the dirt, getting back up before he was counted down.

Obviously more cautious now, Ieyasu slipped into a good academy stance, firm and stable, but ill-suited to rapid combat. He advanced slowly, like a rock, avoiding my kicks by narrow margins and slapping others away.

Fish and whales! This guy has it figured out; if this keeps up he'll win.

Time to throw him off, "So, you have a girlfriend yet?"

"No, I am far too young for such things."

"To young to have friends! Where did you grow up? Or is this just a result of having no friends at all?"

He flinched at that, ouch, must've hit the nail on the hammer.

"No friend Ieyasu joined the academy, huh, why? He thought he'd make friends there? Or did he want to die in combat, and get his name on that beautiful stone?"

"You know nothing!" Ieyasu yelled in fury, rushing forward at a speed beyond what he was capable of before, hmm, I wonder how much and how long anger empowers you? This merits some research.

"You have a clan, a family that loves you! And you dare to mock me because I have none!?"

Wow, he really is letting it all out, sounds close to tears to.

"I lived my life in an orphanage, with kids smarter and more liked!"

"I spent my days trying to be good at _something_ but nothing, nothing," He was panting now.

"Until I found I could mold chakra, it was like a dream come true! Ninja's are respected, I could _be _something. But then you, you and the rest of this pathetic class! All better than me!"

O.K, I did not expect this, makes me feel a little bad about this, but still.

I kicked him repeatedly, until the teacher called the match.

"Oi, Ieyasu, sorry about making fun of you, I didn't mean it, just making sure to make you lose your temper." I said to the boy as he got up, despite his bruises, and walked away.

He made a thin line with his lips and nodded once, but, what were more telling were the clenched fists he bore at his sides.

I scratched an itch on my neck; this whole taunting business can make you feel bad if _they_ go too far with the reaction. Both sides needed this experience though, so I'll put this on my list of successes.

**XXX**

Do you know the difference between success and failure? There is none, failure is a successful fail and success is a failed fail. Don't worry if this all doesn't make sense to you, it shouldn't.

Nevertheless, it seems good to inform you that this mental stupidity was brought on by my failed failure at water walking. Thus, those who gaze upon my glorious figure shall be i- "Whoa!"

I shivered, darn leaf, don't you know that disrupting the surface is a no no?

It's the cooler months at this point and any bravado is done away with in favor of keeping warm when you're soaked to the dermis. I say to the dermis because getting soaked to the bone is physically impossible without ripping off some of your flesh.

The end of this year is the cut off for early graduation, not what you're thinking. It means that - unless we're at war - the end of this year is the earliest you can graduate.

The Hyuuga twins, myself, and Minato seem to be the only for sure graduates, but most kids try. Of course, the requirements are rather harsher than at regular graduation. Don't ask why, I have no idea.

So, I've been pushing on my Katon jutsu and chakra control. I've almost got water walking down and the fire techniques I know are almost second nature now. Still, in actual combat I have a high chance of getting slaughtered.

Maybe I need to be proactive about my jonin-sensei; if I interested Orochimaru he'd pull the strings and boom, Orochimaru-sensei. With Sakumo though, I have no idea.

If only the darn Sharingan would evolve. I activated it, hoping for the less-than-likely outcome of joy.

Huh, that was strange; the air seemed to have extra chakra here for some reason. A seal around here perhaps?

I look the area over, searching for something that would be releasing chakra into the air; finally I looked into the water with a scowl. My reflection scowled back at me and I couldn't help but look at it for a second.

My Sharingan's vision was too HD to miss the 3rd tomoe in each eye spinning around painfully slowly. My face split in two with a smile. Stupid thing finally cooperating I see, it's about time too.

I marched back out on the water, confidently watching the ripples in the water with my special eyes as I stood and even walked for minutes. Yes, the Sharingan was truly a blessing.

The next day, I remembered that I needed to inform Hiroshi-sensei of my success, and so I did, sprinting to his house and calmly knocking on his wooden door.

"Hiroshi-sensei, good-day, I have a surprise for you." I instantly said even as the man stepped outside.

"Oh? What kind?"

I activated my Sharingan, the three tomoe spinning up at the Uchiha's face.

"You got it!" He exclaimed unguardedly, before popping into a formal stance, "I heartily congratulate you on your remarkable success Nanashi-kun."

"I accept your gracious congratulation with upmost respect."

"Does your father know yet?"

"No, I have not yet had the chance to inform Father of this development."

"You should do so as soon as possible my student, he will be most pleased."

"Of course, I shall not hesitate to inform Father at the earliest opportunity."

"Good. How's the chakra control coming?" Hiroshi asked, slipping back into a more casual form of speech.

"I am now able to walk on water for minutes, though not always without fail." I replied, still formal.

"Excellent, I'll drop by to give some pointers next time you try."

"I kindly accept your gracious offer."

"How's the weapon throwing coming along?"

"My range is now beyond thirty meters on stationary targets." It's a fact, throwing kunai at ninja from more than ten meters almost always fails if they are moving, it's just that that no ninja has a constant velocity, simple physics.

"Very nice, hits or bull's-eye?" I'm honored; to even consider that I could hit the bull's-eye from there.

"Hits, sensei."

"Let's have a spar, training weapons and taijutsu."

"I'd be happy to spar with you, Hiroshi-sensei."

We walked over to the Uchiha training grounds, each of us taking pouches of blunt kunai and shuriken from the little stall next to the place. It was all quite convenient, if you were an Uchiha you had the right to use training weapons so long as you returned them when done, they even had swords and stuff, something to look into.

Hiroshi and I faced off, looking closely for any weaknesses, not that we would find any, being teacher and talented student. Since everything I knew about taijutsu came from Hiroshi, with maybe a couple exceptions, this was no over statement.

I began the spar by rushing in and point blank throwing my kunai before mounting a hasty retreat, hit and run has, and always will, work.

Hiroshi, however, was far too skilled to either be taken by surprise or hit, the Uchiha easily batted away my blunt kunai, almost missing the shuriken I had snuck into the barrage. Almost means nothing in the shinobi world, which is why in ninja math you always round down, whereas civilians round up. No kidding.

Slipping the kunai he had used back into his pouch Hiroshi came at me with a beautifully executed interceptor style.

Knowing that my smaller frame would result in my own demise if I took the attack head-on, I circled around it, aiming to land a kick on Hiroshi's shin. Not a weak spot to be sure, but shins had always been somewhat prone to breaking or feeling pain. Plus, skilled ninja always expected you to strike the knee.

And really, when it came down to it, the ninja who won was the fastest, strongest, and most _surprising_. It's why Naruto himself didn't die right away, he was unpredictable, but boy was he slow and weak.

So, as with almost all things, balance is the key.

Hiroshi was fast; and strong too, but surprising he was not, not to me at least, I knew what he was capable of, not all of it, but close. This was my advantage, he knew me, yes, but not for all I was.

Still, I blocked an overhead kick with both my arms; I don't think it'll be enough. I disengaged quickly, avoiding the body lift that would no doubt follow.

Hiroshi had fought many times, and he was good, much better than I was. Whatever conceit I had about being the best student was washed away every time I lost an encounter, which was almost all.

I jumped back, avoiding a straight punch, knowing that I could not block it. Hiroshi followed up with an upward kick that could have seriously mauled my tenders, seriously, that's vicious.

I continued to retreat, avoiding all manner of attacks and waiting for an opening. There! I jumped forward, placing my feet so that I'd have all the force I could muster; this had the side effect of making it impossible to back up.

Blunted kunai in both hand I hoped for the best, trying to get a read on what the older male's response would be. I didn't know what hit me until a quite a bit later.

Hiroshi-sensei had boxed my ears so forcefully I went dead out.

I woke up in my bed, noticing that the sun was lower than before, by a decent margin. Maybe an hour or two? It didn't matter, I needed water, badly.

I groggily stumbled over to the sink, grabbing my glass and filling it generously with Konoha's healthy tap water. Just another blessing from the Nidaime to me, running - and oh so clean - water.

After draining my glass I sparingly splashed water on my face, to wake myself up. I looked over to the coat rack, good, Chichi was home.

I sought out the nearest person, my mother as it turned out, asking her for directions.

Instead, "Already up, Nana-chan?"

"Yes, Mother, I have awoken, I assume Hiroshi-sensei knocked me out?"

She made a small frown before answering, "Yes he did, and mighty irresponsible it was. I mean, kids need training, yes, and even broken bones, but head blows that cause concussions are too much."

Mother is rather strange about this subject, but what she just said is her opinion in a nut-shell. She's all for kids getting beat up a bit, but anything that can cause anything approaching brain damage is a no-no. Makes some sort of sense I guess, the early years are very critical as far as the brain goes.

Still, to get back to what I came for, "Where is Father?" I hope Hiroshi-sensei didn't tell him himself.

"In his home office, working on a little surprise," She answered, almost proudly. Well, if it weren't a surprise I'd be all over that.

It's kind of strange though, Father almost never uses his home office, preferring to keep work away from home for the most part.

I walked over to where I now knew my father was, knocking sharply twice at the door.

There was a quiet rustling sound before he intoned, "Come in."

I opened the door, silently stepping in and closing it behind me, "I trust Hiroshi-sensei hasn't told you?"

He looked at me quizzically, "Told me what?"

Suddenly I felt worse about this whole thing, some part of me wanting to back out for no apparent reason, but I squashed it ruthlessly before speaking up, "My Sharingan evolved."

"The 3-tomoe then?" I nodded, "Good, I'm happy for you, I'll make some time and give you some personal instruction."

It's been forever since Father has had a direct hand in my training, this must mean a lot to him. Or maybe his work schedule is finally winding down a little.

"In the mean-time," He was quite serious, "There is a book in your library you should read, _Laws of Konoha_, as policemen, Uchiha are expected to be able to make just judgments, in fact, quite a number have gone on to be judges and lawyers after their active shinobi years."

How intriguing, I suppose I've always had a slight fancy for being the lawyer, like on the movies, still, I'm far too realistic to believe it really goes that way.

Still, laws can get me really riled up, I like to know what they say and hate on the guys who don't follow them. Of course, bureaucracy can be a serious pain, hopefully we don't have one here. Although, somehow I think there is a small one.

Nevertheless, pondering aside, Father has told me to read a book, and so I shall. I mean really, who doesn't want to please their dad at this age? And in a feudal society this is even more prevalent, if you don't do what your father says you are a downright rebel to society.

Not that I'm complaining, I'll get to do the same with my own kids. Assuming I meet that special someone. Or, I guess Father might arrange a marriage for me, I don't mind; as long as the girl isn't a you-know-what. To put it in less than explicit terms, hopefully my wife will not be a female dog.

I bowed lightly, excusing myself from the room. I then walked over to my own library hidden behind the curtains; I entered quietly, and began searching for the book Father had mentioned.

There we are, _Laws of Konoha_ and then in smaller print below that _and their Interpretations_ interesting, we get to read the laws, then their conventional meanings and then compare my own understanding to that.

After a short, and largely meaningless, preamble I got right into the reading. On a side note, the book is satisfactorily thin.

_Highest Law: The Hokage has authority to make laws and administer judgments to the breakers thereof._

Short and to the point, I see he doesn't have the right to tax the population though.

_Higher Laws: The general populace has the right to vote on the Hokage's successor._

How interesting, only popular men can be Hokage, it seems. Although this must be a new law, since both the second and third Hokages were appointed.

_Only the Merchant Guild, with the Hokage's approval, can tax civilians._

Non-shinobi can't be arbitrarily taxed I see, though non-civilian taxes have not yet been mentioned. Giving this much authority to a 'Guild' sounds stupid; but I suspect that the name is a misnomer.

_Clans shall retain the right to practice traditions, provided they do not infringe on the rights of other clans or citizens._

This is why the Hokage has no say over, say, the Hyuuga's cursed seal.

_Every citizen of Konoha has the right to life and private property._

In other words, this is a dictatorship, but no way are we a socialistic society.

_No citizen shall be detained beyond 24 hours or otherwise punished without due process of law._

Basically, 'we assure our wonderful residents that the cops won't come and torture you for no reason' definitely a needed provision.

_The Hokage has the right to label rebellious shinobi missing-nin, to be hunted until such time as they are captured or killed._

Oooh, Hokage-sama can just call any shinobi he wants a nuke-nin, that's dangerous.

There might have been a couple more, but I skimmed over it and went on down to the regular laws.

_Laws: All revenue wrought by mission payment shall be split equally between the participating ninja and the village, with the village always receiving half._

This one leaves no room for question, necessary when it comes to stuff like this. I looked down, wow, it seemed like twenty pages of laws; that's really good, the US had millions of pages, I am sure.

_The Uchiha clan is hereby vested the authority to run and maintain the military police. Monetary compensation shall be provided for every ninja therein._

This one is pretty vague actually; it doesn't even say how much compensation. I'm sure there is a precedent or something they use for that though, unwritten rules.

_Conditions for Citizenship:_ _Both parents must be proven Konoha citizens, or, the applicant must reside in Konoha for ten years, or, the subject can be granted citizenship by the Hokage. All foreign merchants or resident non-citizens shall be treated justly._

That extra clause there is important, but still, this is huge, if Orochimaru's experiments were done on orphans who had no known parents and were less than ten years of age, he was technically within the law. Since I doubt the Hokage grants every one of them citizenship.

That's kind of mind blowing, of course, the Hokage has the right to label any shinobi as a missing-nin, so if he says no-no, don't do it. I'm still mind-blown by this particular revelation though.

_Foreign emissaries shall be treated with honor and shall not be unduly spied upon or otherwise have their privacy infringed. No foreign emissary may be capitally punished._

I see; this is what screwed Konoha over on the Hyuuga incident; Konoha had broken its own law, not to mention grossly infringed on whatever the newest treaty was.

Although, about the upper sentence, I've got to say, this just means 'We won't get caught spying on you.' I mean, no one expects you to _not _spy on foreigners.

Something I've noticed about these laws, it doesn't say what the punishment for breaking them is. Must go back to the Highest Law, Hokage decides. And then after he's made a decision, judges in normal courts use the same one for similar cases? Unreliable, if workable.

Or is there a chief justice somewhere? That'd be a job.

I continued reading, picking apart in my mind the laws that were controversial, and trying to better understand Konoha.

**XXX**

With the three-tomoe Sharingan there are many benefits, and many responsibilities, as Hiroshi-sensei would put it. The ability to see chakra is a massive boon, but can also cause damage to the optical nerves if you see too much; or something like that.

Anyway, for a myriad of reasons, it's not safe to have a doujutsu on constantly; obviously these guys haven't met Nagato. Which, by the way, I am very eager to do, eliminating perhaps the greatest ninja since the Sage of Six Paths from the threat list is pretty important.

Nevertheless, I have no idea how to go about turning him away from his little 'Peace Plan', from becoming Pein.

As I've noted before though; in comparison, Obito is the greater issue. And I've done some thinking, killing Obito right away is unfair to the fellow, so, I need to find Madara himself. Either he will die, or he'll somehow turn me to the dark side, or I'll die, simple.

Of course, I'll need to leave a journal, detailing everything that will happen, if I choose to do this.

I'll right it in English, leaving a key to the unheard of language in my path, so that only those with both can know the future. Man, that sounds so mystically cool, 'Only those with both will know the future', like some treasure maps riddle.

Still, this is way off topic, where were we? Ah, yes, it's not safe to keep your doujutsu on for inordinate periods of time. Kind of like having adrenaline pumping for thirty-six hours isn't healthy.

But, the responsibilities are not insubstantial; those with the three-tomoe Sharingan have a place of prestige within the clan, since some never even activate their doujutsu.

Of course, my own prestige is already somewhat high; being clan head's son and all, but, having no head-band, Uchiha, rightly, dismiss me out of hand. And while my pride is damaged, my logic is delighted.

By far the greatest impact, however, is the ability to copy other's techniques. On this note I feel it right to mention that those who are offended by Uchiha 'thieves' don't deserve to be called ninja. Period.

I've not had the opportunity to learn anything in this fashion yet, but once I've graduated I'm sure it'll pick up.

On to other matters, Minato has really started to show his genius, almost surpassing even my own impressive lead. This, of course, would not stand, and so, grateful for the motivation, I have pressed on all the more, easily outstripping the rest of the class.

To my great intellectual delight Minato has recently begun studying some Fuinjutsu books of low caliber, allowing me to compare notes on the subject with him.

Kushina, naturally, is most unimpressed with Minato's newfound strength, his unimpressive features leaving her wholly disbelieving and doubtful. Her own scores are now at the bottom of the top seven, Shin'Ichi and Isao both having greater academic skill.

Her chakra control, while naturally boosted by her feminine gender, is lowered by her brash nature and hot-temperedness. It makes you wonder how a control freak like Tsunade ever gets away with being angry.

And for those doubters, it's a proven fact; mental instability causes disruption in the chakra flow, resulting in lowered control.

This is why true shinobi never waver, if they do, the techniques fail.

At this point, I'm lined up to graduate in six weeks, and I've never been more excited and dreadfully afraid for my life before.

**XXX**

"For those of you who are attempting early graduation, arrogant brats, come with me!" Aoki yelled, leaving his assistant to wrap up the school year for the few who remained.

Virtually the entire group had followed Aoki, somehow self-confident after four years of schooling. They should have known better.

"First we have a beautiful written test! Take a seat."

"There are thirty-six problems, from various subjects, and you have 15 minutes to finish them. Begin!"

No sense worrying about the time limit.

_Who was the First Hokage's wife?_

Easy peasy, Uzumaki Mito.

_In what year did the First Shinobi War begin?_

I hate date problems, I wrote down what I was fairly sure matched that event.

And so the problems continued, the history ones taking fifteen seconds and the math ones eating up the rest of the time, then with 2 minutes left I came to number 33.

_You have two teammates, both genin, and you are facing a jonin opponent, what course of action do you take? Explain._

_I negotiate; rank means little in the shinobi world, but, it's safe to assume that a jonin can run faster than any genin, running is out. Also safe to assume that the jonin has greater combat prowess than genin, so, buying time or outright avoiding confrontation is the best course of action._

Time ran out before I could complete my answer to the next tactical question which was: _Assume that ten chunin are running toward your position at sixteen miles per hour, you have two jonin as back-up, what is your course of action if the chunin are hostile and the friendly jonin are tired? The chunin are 1.2 miles away. Explain._

I wrote _Hide_ but had not the time to actually explain, "Pencils down maggots! We have a very special guest for our next section, taijutsu."

"Say hello to Nakata-san, teacher of sixth year taijutsu here at the academy, and very proficient at it."

I figure with long musty-brown hair turned around slowly and dramatically, flicking her hair back as she fully faced us.

"A woman!?" Some stupid kid yelled, extremely surprised at the feminine nature of the taijutsu instructor.

"Indeed," I answered dryly; seriously, it's not that surprising; anybody can be good at the academy style, which is why it even _is_ the academy style.

"You've got one objective, last for two minutes or more against Nakata-sensei and you'll be well on your way to genin; come when called."

As usual, the list went down alphabetically, from the top, leaving me very near the bottom, which I was very happy about, this way I could pick apart Nakata-sensei's style. Finally, and I mean finally, the Hyuuga and Minato lasted forever, my turn came.

"You look tired Nakata-sensei; perhaps you should sit this one out?"

"Peh, I've got plenty in me kid." Oh, I know you do, just look at all those not-genins licking their bruises.

"I'm sure you do, but it's not healthy for women to exhaust themselves."

"You better shut up before you get yourself in trouble kid." Ah, darn, attempt number one to rile up opponent, failed.

"Hajime!" Yoshiro yelled, preempting any witty comebacks.

"You know, it really is quite impressive that a woman like you teaches all those _big boys_," I added a mocking lilt, "their place."

"I've heard better taunts from toads."

"Have you now? I wonder then, perhaps you know Jiraiya-sama, rather closely it seems, since he let you speak with his toads, mm." I jiggled my eyebrows and made a knowing look.

Without warning Nakata came at me, finally realizing that I was just buying time, that being the objective, I ducked under her blow, lashing out with my own. She swatted it away with her other hand, coming in with kick that could send bratty little boys like me flying.

"Did I hit a nerve?"

"You're stupid kid; I've barely even seen Jiraiya-sama."

"Ah, well, if it happened while you were drunk we can still find a doctor."

"If what happened?" She asked as I ducked under another blow.

"Nothing, seriously, everybody seems to think that this stuff means anything, I'm not implying a thing; you are just inferring whatever you want to." I'm not kidding; people take this stuff _way_ to personally.

"Nice try, kid," Nakata praised me insincerely as I began my own series of attacks.

I hastily dodged as the female teacher countered with her right fist, dancing around the blow with what little skill I had. I glanced at the clock, at least thirty seconds to go.

Using all my speed I dodged a sweeping kick, followed by an eight punch combo. I jumped back as Nakata-sensei closed in, avoiding a brutal beat-down.

She then came in with a tackle, with great speed did she charge, but I slipped to her left just as she made to grab me, tripping her with my foot as I did so.

I caught her fall with both hands, even as the two minute mark rolled around; from here it's bonus points.

I lighted my right leg high, bringing it down with great force on the medium height teachers head, she hastily block with her left arm, deflecting the blow to her shoulder.

Doggone, if I was taller that would have finished her. As it was, the axe kick had hurt her left arm quite nicely.

I disengaged, not wanting to be thrown by my own leg, and took the interceptor stance.

"Time for a graduation reveal, yes?" Oh yes. I almost activated my Sharingan, but I quickly remembered that use of chakra in taijutsu only spars was not allowed, even to strengthen muscles.

"Che," I spat under my breath, stupid academy, now I'd have to make something up for my 'graduation reveal', oh well, let's make it funny.

"Oh yeah? Let's see it kid."

I wracked my brain for a second, before something popped into my head, "Watch closely." By now, the whole class was watching, wondering what the all-powerful move the top kid had been hiding.

I crouched low, putting my hands on the sandy ground and cocking my head to the side. Kushina scoffed.

"Sand Storm!" I yelled, after I threw dust into the watching eyes of Nakata-sensei. I followed up, even as she cursed, and as she rubbed her eyes and flailed I drove her out of the ring. That actually worked better than the Sharingan.

The entire audience was gaping, well, most of it, others were chuckling.

"So, how many points do I get for defeating a teacher?"

"100, next."

As Nakata reentered the ring, still blinking, she was opposite Isao.

At length the exams finished, and the successful students were ushered into the room of the graduating class, two years ahead of the pack, and with Konoha head-bands on.

Even as I had tied mine to my forehead, I felt ten times its measly weight on my shoulder, as I bound it to my head I felt bound to Konoha, if I left now, I was to be hunted until I was beheaded. It was a sobering moment, when I realized I was bound, bodily to someone else's ideals and beliefs.

"Team 11 will be Uchiha Nanashi, Hyuuga Hiashi, and Hironaka Kaede; your jonin-sensei will come and pick you up." Well, at least Hiashi wouldn't be a drag, that's for sure; hopefully this Kaede was a ninjutsu specialist that I could copy from.

After teams were listed off jonin-sensei began arriving and taking the children.

"Team four with me!" A white-haired man yelled, the red paint under his eyes marking his identity clearly.

Minato and his two teammates happily trotted out after the Legendary pervert Sannin, happy to train under such a prestigious figure.

"Team eleven, come with me," I perked up as the number eleven was called, nearly breaking into an impossible grin when I saw who it was.

**A/N: So, finally graduation, with all the drama therein. Reviews are a form of support unrivaled, so please, feel free to review.**

**Anyway, hopefully this chapter this chapter was satisfactory, as is now usual I had trouble getting the chapter going, but by the end I was roaring through the WPM like a professional typer. Ok. Not that fast, I'm really quite slow at typing.**

**Nonetheless, this has been proofread and approved, so please be waiting expectantly for the next chapter, and write with proper grammar.**

**Signed,**

**Iamwhononofyouare**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: You guessed it, I don't own Naruto.**

Chapter Nine

"Kukuku, how have you been, Nanashi-kun?" Orochimaru, young as he was, still tried his best to creep us out.

"I have been well, Orochimaru-sensei." I was glad that I had Orochimaru as my sensei, yes, but I also knew that meant I'd need to watch my back.

"You know Orochimaru-sama from before, Nanashi-san?"

"Not really, just a passing introduction a few years back, Hiashi-san."

It seems that we're on first name terms now that we're teammates; it works fine for me though. Speaking of teammates, I glanced over at our female link inspecting her subtly, Hironaka Kaede was it? Yes, I do believe it was.

"Now, why don't we all introduce ourselves?" Orochimaru spoke up, in that smooth and slithering voice of his.

"I'll go first then, Uchiha Nanashi, hobbies, dreams, likes, and dislikes, yeah?" I got a little nod from my new Sensei, so I continued, "Hobbies? Training, dreams… to stay alive long enough to make a difference; I like sticky rice and Sukiyaki, and training, dislikes… tomatoes and naïve idiots."

Orochimaru made no move to comment or react, instead motioning for Kaede to talk.

"I enjoy freaking out idiots, my hobby is making origami figures, I dislike arrogant pricks, and I want to have a nice family when I grow up." She answered the prompting cheerfully and with diction. She was one year older than Hiashi and I, by appearances, so that means she would be near the top of the class above us, not bad.

Her hobby sounds useless, but if she does it quickly and without a table her manual dexterity must be really high. Orochimaru, complex person though he was, simply pointed at Hiashi, an unreadable grin now on his face.

"I have no hobby, I appreciate my brother, I'm grateful for Nanashi-san, and I wish to lead my clan effectively in the future." I see, short winded, as he tends to be in casual settings.

"Ah, but, Hiashi-kun, you haven't told us what you _hate."_

"Of course Orochimaru-sensei, I dislike being insulted by those inferior to me." That sounds really stuck-up when he says it, but really, don't we all feel this way?

"And now for my own self, I like training and science, I dislike foolish weaklings and powerless politicians, my hobby is learning new techniques, and my dream… my goal, is to learn every single technique I can, especially kinjutsu."

And there we have it, Orochimaru's driving force, the appetite for learning that can never be sated, the desire for power that can never be achieved, the longing for immortality. I suppose I'll never learn all there is to know about this my third sensei. He's sadistic, and ready to do anything for what he wants.

"What about our real test?"

"Real test? We just graduated, Uchiha-san." Kaede admonished, certainly not unkindly.

"How astute Nanashi-kun," Orochimaru spoke up, just as Kaede's brain caught up, "I think you'll love what I have for you."

With trepidation I followed Orochimaru out to a training field that was a good bit away from any training ninja, suspicious, possibly fatal.

"I really only have one thing to say, survive."

I jumped up and away, even as snakes burst from the ground under where my feet had been, fangs open. The smallish snakes used in the technique immediately went back underground, to my annoyance.

Hiashi's eyes bulged, the Byakugan activating, even as I channeled chakra to my own eyes, activating the Sharingan.

"Oh my, three-tomoe already, you really are peculiar." I lurched forward; Orochimaru's breath on my ear had really startled me.

Of course, if Itachi were around he'd laugh at me and write me off, right now though, I'm one of the greatest talents in the Uchiha clan since Madara. Bragging fully intended and justified.

Snakes bit at my previous location, proving the necessity of distancing myself from the Sannin. Orochimaru lazily batted away some kunai that Kaede and Hiashi had thrown, understandably bored.

I had nothing on him, there was absolutely no way I could even _survive_ if he really came at me. Was this a test of cunning, or courage?

"Katon!" I yelled, drawing the snake summoner's vision back to me, nothing happened, nothing was meant to. Orochimaru stood still for a moment, his Kage-level senses searching for what I had done; he realized almost too late that it was a ruse, the next barrage of Kunai flying just shy of his frame.

"Indeed, most unconventional, but you know well enough that such petty things won't work on me, surprise me."

"Ah, but the objective is survive, no rules on either party, I think that our team would fail if I killed you." I replied with false bravado.

"Indeed it would, Nanashi-kun, but let's see you try."

I blazed through the hand seals for the Phoenix Sage Fire, launching it wordlessly at the expectant Sannin. Orochimaru easily evaded my homing fireballs, dodging them without trouble.

"Case in point," I said simply.

"But it's no fun if you don't try; I went through a lot of trouble to be the one to teach you."

"Well, you have three students."

"Oh yes, I certainly do, unless one died already, hmm?" He looked behind himself; I followed his gaze and noted with annoyance that clones were taking care of them.

"Then you are a clone as well?"

Orochimaru grinned down at me, "The original is far too busy of a man to actually come in person."

"Mud clone? Or shadow?"

"My, my, to even know my preferences, I didn't take you far a detective, kuku."

"In any case, that means I have at least a chance."

"I was hoping you'd say that, the original would be so disappointed if I got nothing."

Something I learned from this encounter was a simple fact, even clones movements could be predicted by the Sharingan, but I also couldn't tell a clone from the real one. At least shadow clones anyway, assuming that this is a shadow.

On that tangent, I don't really know much about clone techniques at all, although they are incredibly useful, completely reliable allies. Well, reliable to the extent of their durability.

Orochimaru seemed to bore of my continued thinking, jump-starting the fight.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin!" Orochimaru's clone announced with aplomb, showing off his rather impressive skill with the technique.

I hit the dirt, finding no other viable solution to the rather serious problem, honestly, what happened to this test that made it become life-or-death? Orochimaru, that's what. The snake wielder was easily the greatest talent the village currently had, perhaps minus Minato.

True to his ruthless reputation, the man attacked my prone form, almost landing a vital blow before I rolled away and stood.

I cocked my head both ways before righting it, signifying that the game was on.

"Kunai no Jutsu!" I yelled, all the while throwing shuriken; throwing the enemy off by calling something it really wasn't was one of my favorite tactics.

"Really Nanashi-kun, I know you can do better." I know I can too, but the intellectual knowledge that there's no way I can survive this is really bearing down.

Of course, I also have the knowledge that there's no way he would just kill me, he isn't yet 'immortal' so he won't risk making the Uchiha angry, let alone his own sensei. So, armed with my new-found confidence I stepped forward, taking a well-practiced taijutsu stance.

"Finally, let's see what you got, little Uchiha." He took his own stance, that of the snake style, most likely.

Ok, stay on the ground, never over-commit, let's do this. I sprang forward, lithe as a tiger, gunning for the older and paler man's solar plexus. The yellow-eyed instrument of death was hardly phased by my feeble attempt, opting to just lean back out of reach.

Punk wants me to over-commit does he, wants to make me angry does he? Well, this brat isn't that stupid, old boy.

"Say, if you're a clone, how do you deal with the issue of free-will?"

"The master commands and the non-permanents obey, simple."

I see, so the trick to having clones that don't argue is: Impress upon yourself the philosophy you want them to have. Good to know, although it's just confirmation.

"In that case, are you as good as the original at taijutsu?"

"We are one and the same, yet I work under a disadvantage." Powerful enough to share secrets for free are we? I'll bite.

"Incorrect, you are superior, unless the real one has been watching; you technically have more knowledge, considering our last exchange."

"The master was already aware of that move."

"And yet he hasn't seen me use it on him has he? So, if only marginally, you know more."

"It matters not, in short hours, my knowledge shall be his."

"Katon: Fiery Beheading!" Gosh, buying time for hand-seals behind the back can be such a pain.

"I have not seen this technique for a while, interesting."

The string of fire careened toward the Sannin, hopelessly curling around at his waist level. Well, maybe it wasn't hopeless; I don't think clones can make other clones of any kind.

With alacrity I sent my ring of fire inwards, hoping to dispel the clone. Orochimaru wasn't S-rank for his pale skin and prominent cheekbones however, and he evaded the attack with a precise jump. Sharingan telling me he would before he did, I was already throwing kunai at his new position.

Orochimaru made a single seal, and the kunai embedded itself in a log, blasted Kawarimi.

I scanned the area quickly, finally settling on Orochimaru's figure.

"You like that?" I asked, tauntingly.

"Kukuku, yes, yes I think I did, I didn't expect you to force me to use the log."

"Well, too bad you had a log to use."

"Really, that's not nice Nanashi-kun; it's as if you want me dead."

"I want you dispelled; I have no intention of losing to a clone of all things."

"I'm sure you don't, but you'll have to try harder, much harder." He smirked.

"Fine, Shuriken Kage Bunshin!" I grinned as Orochimaru's eyes widened, the copied technique catching him by surprise. Still, that little stunt cost me; shadow clone techniques cost plenty of chakra. Eh, well, I packed some soup, so no worries.

Orochimaru's widened eyes morphed into a grin, even as he threw his own Shuriken, multiplying it to the exact number I had, each one dispelling one of my own. The two real shuriken met dead center, deflecting each other far and away.

"Really, sensei? Do you have any idea how hard it is to find lost kunai and shuriken, even with my eyes it's a real pain." Seriously, only idiots leave gear behind. That cost me like half a ryo probably, way too expensive.

"How petty, a single shuriken can be easily replaced as long as you are near a ninja village."

So he admits that a single shuriken is worth something far away from a supplier, as intelligent as expected. Nevertheless, losing gear and just letting it go is a massive waste, plus I kind of lied, with my Sharingan active I can see the trajectory of a flying projectile fairly easily, so I know within 2 meters where the shuriken landed.

"Still, Sensei, I think we'd better finish this up."

"Of course, eager to be sent back for another year are we?"

"I may not be a genius, so I don't know what the point of this test is, but have fun!" I made a hand-seal, flooding the area with my most efficient clones, and running in the direction of my teammates.

I found Hiashi first, the Orochimaru clone present lazily avoiding the boy's lightning quick strikes, it was almost disconcerting. I took out my whip, channeling fire chakra down its length.

With nary a cry I lanced forward, hoping to deal a blow to the clone enough to dispel it. Hope is for naïve people though; so I reinforced my efforts, I _would _dispel this clone.

Split between Hiashi and myself, with self-imposed limits, and both of his opponents possessing doujutsu was too much for the clone. I took a blow to my left arm in exchange, however.

"The next one is here."

"Really, how useless was my clone over here, to lose to genin." Orochimaru stated more than asked, then he continued, "I liked the clone trick, Nanashi-kun, but really, if I wasn't dumbing myself down, I would have seen through it in under a second."

"Ah, but I still got what I wanted," Even if it did take almost all my remaining chakra.

"But look, you're wounded," He suddenly stopped moving, afterimage!

I looked down at my arm, watching as the snake summoner licked my wound, tasting my blood.

"Hmm, curious, your blood tastes no different from the next little genin's; perhaps blood-line is a misnomer?"

I casually ripped off my left sleeve, tying it around my wound to stop the flow of blood, no reason to let the freak know how disgusting I thought that was.

"How's Hironaka-san?" I asked both present.

"I'm afraid our little female friend won't last much longerrrr." Orochimaru hissed in reply, no doubt wanting to see me react like some shounen hero.

"Well, that's an unfortunate loss, for now, let's deal with you." I stabbed a kunai into the clone's gut, only to hit the same stupid log from before.

I had ceased channeling chakra to my whip as soon as the other clone dispelled, and now, wary of chakra exhaustion, I did not resume the exercise. Instead, I forced my battered body to move, engaging Orochimaru in a taijutsu bout.

I kept my upper body slightly leaned forward, still stable enough to move easily, though it did compromise some of my kicks. Nevertheless, against a much faster ninja like Orochimaru, speed was everything, and kicks were slow.

I tried my best, hoping to dispel the clone with one good hit, but somehow, the tall thing survived, absorbing the blows like nothing happened. It was frustrating; here I was, against a single clone that was winning.

Seriously, one hit and he should be dead, the clone even admitted to self-imposed limits, and he clearly had more jutsu in his arsenal.

All I needed was one hit though, that only took one second. I looked my new sensei in the eye turning everything in his view black. This was my favorite optical impairment technique, a genjutsu that temporarily made the signals from eye to brain inert.

It was unsubtle like crazy, but in a shinobi fight, it was pure gold. Unable to escape my genjutsu - my Sharingan made it so much easier - in time, the clone dissolved into nothing but chakra smoke.

Two down, one to go.

I smirked, then wobbled, dang chakra exhaustion.

"Finish the other one, Hiashi." I outright commanded before the darkness took me.

**XXX**

"Kukuku, how impressive Nanashi-kun, you managed to get two of me."

I groggily awoke, noting the smell of grass, so, I was still at the training ground. I dutifully glanced at the sun, two hours then.

"Not on my own."

"How humble."

"So, did we pass?"

"You and your teammates displayed an adequate level of skill, an acceptable team spirit, and commendable spirit in completing the assignment," Orochimaru stated observationally.

"That wasn't my question."

Orochimaru scowled back at me, "Yes, I am now officially teaching all three of you."

"Excellent, sorry for calling you by your first name only Hiashi-san, I hope you will excuse the familiarity."

"It is of no consequence, you were under obviously significant stress and such minor missteps are to be expected."

"Well, I am duly grateful for the understanding." I had stood as he spoke; now I bowed slightly to him.

"Orochimaru-sensei, I hope to learn much under your tutelage." I turned to the man as I spoke, making a Chinese gesture of greeting as I did so. Or was it Korean? Memory never was my strong suit, though with all the mental acuity of an Uchiha I find it easier by far now.

"Come tomorrow at five in the morning, and don't be late, I'm a busy man." Orochimaru left after saying as much, obviously finding no need to play politics with brats.

"In that case, I look forward to being your teammate, Hiashi-san, Kaede-san."

Hiashi nodded, but Hironaka found the urge to speak up, "I hope you're as good as they say boys."

"As I do not know what _they _say, I can only hope I am better, nevertheless, we have all graduated early, so I presume all of us have talent, which is good, Orochimaru-sensei doesn't bother with idiots."

"Heh, as if _you _know about him."

"We all have our secrets." I answered cryptically, before continuing, "Good-day, everyone."

I was tired of saying everybody's name all the time, thus, I lazily called them 'everyone'. I left, excited and at the same time, dreading what was to come. Shinobi laughed like all the rest, but they also saw things that would make WWII vets puke, it wasn't an easy life, though somewhat lucrative.

**XXX**

The next day came with no special aplomb, the Naruto-verse not even seeing this as a significant day. I saved any training for later but did not neglect to stretch out my still-weary body. Yesterday had been a true awakening; S-rank meant death to those who were not at least A-rank. I was a C-rank shinobi, good enough, if lucky, to pass the chunin exams.

But Orochimaru wasn't even twice my age, and he was light-years more powerful, my work was indeed cut out for me if I wanted to confront Madara himself.

I set out for the training ground, noting now that Orochimaru hadn't actually specified a location. So I could only assume that we were to return to the location from the day before.

Luckily, the Sharingan's memory function served me well; I easily spotted the training ground, and immediately went to it. I checked my watch, five minutes early, perfect.

Kaede arrived within the minute, making her second there; I saw no reason to be standoffish; so I began a conversation, "Good morning, Hironaka-san."

"Just call me Kaede."

"But of course, then you must call me Nanashi."

"Look, save your clan-talk for clan business."

"Ah, but I cannot break proper etiquette, Kaede-san."

"If you don't listen to me, I'll teach you your place, youngling."

"Tut, tut, a fight so early? Do tell me you'll finish." Hironaka and I looked up to find Orochimaru staring blankly down at us, Hiashi off to the side.

"Good morning Orochimaru-sensei. I look forward to whatever excuse of a mission we'll be getting."

"Oh yes, I'm afraid you'll be learning how to bury dead bodies today," He grinned.

"An exceedingly useful endeavor, shall we proceed?"

"Yes." Kaede said tersely.

Hiashi nodded slowly, betraying nothing with his practiced Hyuuga façade. An emotionless visage is not as useful as an expressive and tightly controlled one, but it does nicely.

Orochimaru lead the way without further ado, bringing us at a brisk pace to a place in the dirtiest of states. The morgue.

"What's this? Come to drop off live bodies finally, Hebi?"

"No, I'm pained to say that these ones are not to be dissected, instead we'll be taking what's left of the ones you've dealt with." I have to say, that first part would have been funny if he weren't so dead serious.

"Help yourself; bags are in stock so you're in luck."

I wiped my wrist over my nose as we stepped into the next room. Upon seeing the cargo, I nearly puked.

Displayed, almost neatly, on tables were organs, bones, tissue, even vivisected eyes.

"Everyone, even civilians, has a story to tell, even after death. You'll find this place is well guarded once you're more skilled," The snake Sannin explained neutrally.

"So this is what Konoha does with dead bodies?" I asked, my voice nearly quavering, well, it was, a little.

"Not all of them, particularly, Clan shinobi are burnt without any doctoring."

"To protect clan secrets, I see." I shook myself, "Well, we bag the stuff and dump it in a hole, yes?"

"Yes." He looked down at me, my own height dwarfed by one of the tallest men in Konoha's.

"Knew I should have brought gloves, ah well," No sense dwelling on it, a job needs to be done quickly.

I spotted a bag, opened it up, and began filling it with the contents of a single table. The guy who dissects these is probably at least an A-rank shinobi, my mind idly noted.

Perhaps a sealing scroll would work better? Too expensive, the ink takes much care and trouble to make, not to mention the seal itself. Nonetheless, depending on the tote distance, it might be needed.

Hiashi, while saying nothing, was clearly disgusted, but he took it well all considered. Kaede though… she was positively green, no doubt imagining herself as one of these unfortunate dead bodies. Not that the bodies care.

"Look, it's not like they cut these guys up alive, and when they are dead, they don't feel a thing."

Kaede's head whipped over in my direction, "So you think this is fine?"

"It is, we're shinobi, ninja deal with dead almost as much as necromancers, this shouldn't bother you after the initial shock. Indeed, the Nidaime even developed a sacrificial resurrection technique."

Orochimaru looked down at me, eyes interested, Hiashi looked spooked, and Kaede gaped like a fish. Is it not common knowledge? Whoops.

"Enough talk, finish up, or I'll choose a part of you to put in with this mess."

"As you say, Sensei," I continued with my morbid task, watching as Hironaka and the Hyuuga did the same.

We toted the bodies over to a coffin, and even nailed down the boards, it seemed that we wouldn't be burying bodies ourselves, despite previous preconceptions. The number of parts totaled to five whole bodies, it seems Konoha truly is large.

After receiving our pay, split five ways that it was, we marched over to the training ground which Team Orochimaru was beginning to think of as their own. Well, the kids at least.

The tall, and impossibly pale, Sannin clapped his hands once, "So, what did we learn today?" On paper it looked friendly, but his eager expression and tone ruined that effect.

"That Konoha subsidizes dissection of dead bodies." I refused to phrase it as a question, as that made one seem unreliable.

"Indeed, anything else?" He stared disturbingly at Kaede, making her quite uncomfortable.

"That genin don't make that much money?"

"Why yes they do," He whipped out a kunai and threw it past her face, drawing a thin line of blood, "Rank means nothing in a fight, remember that."

"And the Hokage can assign a mission to anyone he pleases," I added, just to come off as a smart aleck.

"Yes, he can, so be careful who you offend," Orochimaru stated, nearly viciously, really, he likes to scare you, doesn't he?

"I'll be careful, sensei."

"Now, let's see you three fight; no rules, no stops, no teams."

Free for all eh? Those always suck, gotta hang back for now then. All at once, the tree of us leaped back and away, taking cover in the nearest tree grove.

Hiashi can see everything, so if I go after Kaede - the obvious choice - he'll pick me off. That means I need to finish Hiashi fast, then I can get over and take out the girl.

He said no rules, but I doubt killing is an acceptable response, I'm sure my team feels the same way. Hiashi went left, so that's where I'll go.

Sharingan spinning warily I advanced, taking pains to make no noise, Hiashi might see everything, but Kaede does not. I found the Hyuuga waiting for me, no doubt believing an ambush to be useless, with kunai drawn.

"I assume we're not killing each other?" I asked, just to be sure.

"The political fallout would be too great; besides, a dead teammate would put me in an ill-favored setup."

"Then we are in agreement," I drew my whip, instantly sending fire chakra down its length, the non-lethal burns would serve me better than the razor-like quality of raw chakra in metal.

Hiashi threw kunai in a wide arc, lowering damage to prevent dodging. I sidestepped one and deflected another with a kunai held in my left hand.

I advanced quickly, lashing out with my blazing whip, careful to not leave an opening. Hiashi, having fought my whip before, had a slight advantage, but the excess range of my whip kept his highly taijutsu reliant style at a loss. In the end, the match-up was nearly even, but Kaede would interfere sooner or later.

This had to end fast; however, close range was out of the question, the risk of closed tenketsu being far too high. And, unlike in one-on-one duels, I would not have time to recover before my next fight.

I sprang forward, whip dancing beside me, Hiashi did not take the bait, instead he avoided all my blows expertly, it seemed I'd have to make moves that would cost him more to dodge. I began throwing kunai with my left hand, amateurishly wielding my whip all the while.

Let it not be said that I am ambidextrous, for I am not. Despite my failing concentration and poor left-handed accuracy, Hiashi was kept at bay. This wouldn't end at this rate, I retracted my chakra, stowing my whip away quickly and blazing through hand-seals.

Hiashi quickly saw the jutsu I was about to perform but he was too far back to stop it, instead, he threw shuriken at me.

I leaned to the side as I completed my hand-signs, a skill I had spent days on, dodging the projectiles.

"Katon: Phoenix Sage Fire." I stated, noticing, as always, that the power was less than when I yelled the name full-force. However, power was no object, if Hiashi was hit; he'd be burnt enough that he'd most likely pass out.

The chakra-directed fireballs were not to be denied, despite Hiashi's best efforts, he had no counter-jutsu for it, and my control of the technique was such that it hardly deteriorated at all. So, after a brilliant dodge, wasting four of my five fireballs, Hiashi was hit in the air, causing him to fall heavily.

Kaede's kunai hurt, I decided, as I pulled it out of my shoulder, flesh wound, lucky. Time for retaliation.

I withdrew explosive tags from my person, hastily inserting them into the rings on kunai I had also drawn, adrenaline pumping, I ignored the pain in my left shoulder, opting to focus on my task.

"Give up, little boy, you're wounded."

"I'll give up, when I have no chance of winning!" I threw my now-dangerous kunai at Kaede, using my Sharingan to keep track of her and throw them on target.

"I hope you live," I smirked as she noticed the tag and began to curse, "Katsu!"

A loud boom echoed through the area, ah, lucky, a sound-dominant one. With a design that boasted terrifying noise, in exchange for lethality, the sound-dominant was great for making people look in its direction.

I examined the damage, noting with satisfaction that Hironaka looked quite bull-dozed and was bleeding from her face. The concussive force had knocked her clean out.

"Sensei! I win!" I yelled, unnecessarily as Orochimaru was already behind me.

"Kuku, how impressive, Nanashi-kun," He picked up Kaede, throwing her unceremoniously over his shoulder.

"I'll wake up Hiashi-san." I meandered over to the fallen Hyuuga, now feeling the intense pain in my shoulder, and the aches elsewhere.

"Up, Hyuuga heir, it is not befitting for one of your standing to lie prone on the ground!"

Hiashi shot up smartly, pulling himself into a hilariously formal position, hilarious because he, and his clothes, was burnt, not to mention his leaf-infested hair.

"Let's make a trip to Konoha's hospital," I stated more than asked, already beginning to haul myself in that direction.

Orochimaru looked us over, and then began walking to the same location.

As it turned out, a piece of shrapnel had pierced Kaede's right cheek, finally impacting, and subsequently breaking, one of her teeth, it was a minor injury that left a small quantity of scar tissue.

Hiashi was quickly healed by med-nin because of his burns. He bore no resentment, fortunately.

As for myself, I was put in a hospital bed for a day, worse luck.

Mother fussed a little, but was far too used to injured family to be shaken to a large degree, Father was adamant that I should have been able to avoid the kunai, but forgave me. Fugaku was generally silent and hard to read during the visit, but I thought I saw disdain when he looked at the wound.

I am not so self-centered as to believe he was disdainful of me, instead attributing it to the possibility that he was unimpressed with the hospital's rule that I had to have bed-rest. Of course, I could be thinking in an entirely incorrect direction, but it matters little.

Hiroshi-sensei dropped by, thoughtfully dumping a couple of books I had mentioned I was reading off at my bedside. Where he got them I don't know, but it really is of no consequence, unless he paid for them, in which case I'd feel quite bad.

Soon enough the end of the next day rolled around, and I was discharged with no fuss. I do hope Orochimaru-sensei isn't displeased by this little set-back, but if I had to say, he went off and did some super-secret mission while I healed.

**XXX**

The next morning came with no special events, which was always good, a special surprise for ninja usually equaled death. I ate breakfast quickly, putting on my least-valuable set of clothes in preparation for another dirty job.

I found the rest of the team waiting; I must have arrived on the dot then, because I'm never late. I decided not to wave, the action being far too casual for a noble.

"Greetings, Orochimaru-sensei, Hiashi-san, Kaede-san, how are you today?"

"We're quite alright, Nanashi-kun, now let's get to it," Orochimaru replied tersely, obviously on some kind of schedule.

Rather than replying, I nodded demurely, waiting for Orochimaru to get to it.

"D-ranks, my poor little genin, are the majority of your diet."

Kaede was clearly in severe trepidation about the whole affair, our last D-rank being a little more than any of us kids bargained for. Hiashi betrayed nothing, on his face, the subtle way his feet turned to retreat told another story.

I narrowed my eyes, but was reasonably sure that our last experience was a one-time thing. Nevertheless, paranoia was a shinobi's friend.

As it turned out, we would be fixing pot-holes, why genin had this job I had no idea, it's not as if ninja labor came cheap. Guys of a vocation that would leave them well-qualified for such a task were not in a shortage after-all.

"You'll use this, don't keep me waiting." Previous assumptions aside, it seemed Orochimaru was quickly becoming disillusioned with being a jonin-sensei.

On a more important note, the snake Sannin had pointed out a dark slop, smelling heavily of tar. I spotted five-gallon buckets nearby, clearly for the purpose a toting this less than superb material. Also nearby were shovels, luckily enough, so I got a bucket and a shovel and began loading it most of the way up.

As expected, the slop was heavy, but a ninja's strength is not to be belittled. Hiashi had already started going for the buckets before I had even started shoveling, and Kaede followed quickly.

Orochimaru made no move to correct us, so I assumed I had guessed accurately. Shovel and bucket in hand, we went through several streets, filling in potholes with the warm slop.

By the time Orochimaru told us we'd done enough we all smelled like some kind of… well, whatever they call tar-men. To put it in another way, we stunk of asphalt.

Our newest sensei then dragged us over to the training ground, obviously unwilling to allow no training to be done.

"Now, I hate complaining an idiocy. Walk up these trees."

Fortunately for me, I had long-since mastered the art of tree-walking. So I picked out a tree, noting that Hiashi was already beginning on his own one. Kaede, it seemed, was also aware of the exercise, though her proficiency was not as high, it was still quite decent.

Perhaps this was the 'talent' team of the year? It was inconsequential, right now, I needed to impress Orochimaru more than either of my teammates, moral issues aside, he was incredibly powerful, and decidedly talented, after all, he was Sarutobi's favorite.

"Good, good, continue," We all did so, up until the point he began throwing kunai at us.

"You flesh-bags! I said continue!" He was angry we hadn't caught on it seemed.

So, reluctantly, we walked up and down trees, dodging kunai and groaning under the abdominal strain. The ab strength needed to remain 'upright' as you walked side-ways was not inconsiderable.

Orochimaru, it seemed, was not entirely devoted to his rather sadistic task, opting to read some book while we all did our thing, even as he tossed kunai with his other hand. As I later found, the book was a kinjutsu book, Orochimaru's one never-ending interest.

Kinjutsu, to the uneducated, are jutsu that are forbidden, for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, moral concerns, chakra consumption, wide-spread destruction, and general suicidal nature. An example of the second would be Naruto's famous Tajuu Kage Bunshin, costing so much that even a Kage would run the risk of chakra exhaustion.

Suicidal were, curiously, poorly documented, an unfortunate result of the death of their creator. Most of them were just theoretical due to this rather incriminating set-back.

At length, our rather tortuous session ended, and Orochimaru sent us home without aplomb. It seemed that this would become our new general pattern, D-rank, train, go home.

Yes, truly, this was the beginning of my life As a Ninja.

**XXX**

**So, finally chapter nine is out, laziness is a writer's enemy.**

**Anyway, I hope the lot of you enjoyed, and I hope you'll review.**

**Writing Orochimaru was hard, and will be, since his pre-defection personality isn't exactly well-documented. Also hard because, if you haven't caught it, I've only actually read 4 or 5 lines from him in the manga.**

**So, wishing you all a happy thanksgiving, Iamwhononofyouare.**


	10. 10 Science of Chakra

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or even As a Ninja, so while I do like to get credit, I can't even stop you from copying this word-****e I do like to get credit, I can'****for-word.**

**Chapter 10**

As it turned out, this was my schedule for the next month, and while Orochimaru could be irritable at times, he wasn't unlikeable. Truly, if he was, why would his minions and students have practically worshipped him? Future minions and students, of course, Kaede and Hiashi were still wary of him.

And, to be perfectly honest, I was wary of every single person in this world, even my wonderful mother. So, it goes without saying that with a future body-stealer like Orochimaru, I was cautious, if eager to learn his many tricks.

As time went by, it became clear that when Orochimaru was not training us or running missions, he was training himself very diligently. In contrast to his perhaps-friend Jiraiya, who was always peeping it seemed; it was clear why he had become the Hokage's favorite student.

On a side note, Minato and I crossed paths once, and he seemed to be doing rather well for himself, I took great pains to get friendly with him without being obvious, and, if the fact that we're meeting now is anything to go by, I succeeded.

"Minato-san, good afternoon," There really was no way we could have met in the morning, both of us having teachers who ate up the morning.

"Good afternoon, Nanashi."

I really don't mind the familiarity, and, though constant practice makes me loath to reciprocate it, I do try.

"What's on the agenda, future Hokaga-sama?" I asked completely seriously, even giving a little show of respect in the form of a tiny bow.

"We both know that you don't think I'll actually make it, though I will."

"Actually, I disagree, if I may say so, within twenty years you'll be Hokage." I replied, utterly sincere, and, since I was, this was easy.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Nanashi, how's your sensei?"

"Extremely pale, slightly disturbing, rather sadistic, and refreshingly dedicated, yours?"

Minato grinned before reciting his own sensei's description, "Extremely perverted, slightly admirable, rather funny, and refreshingly… hmm ah! Friendly."

"Nice, although I'm sure someday even you will respect him." I smirked.

"Hey! I respect all my teachers!"

Typical, "I guess you'll also respect me then, since I've taught you."

"Taught me what?"

Oh ho, time for a learning experience, "Everyone has something to teach, from me you learned about my own fighting style, you taught me that some things _are _predictable, and that talent isn't obvious at first glance."

"Huh."

"Anyway, I've got some money; want to grab something to eat?"

I hate to skip out on family dinner, but cultivating relationships really shouldn't be despised.

"Sure, if you're buying."

Of course, for an orphan like Minato, he's probably just scraping by, so while he acts tough, I'm sure he'd make some excuse and leave if he was paying, not that I mind. Well, then again, I do mind, I always mind my money; the world runs on money and chakra, in varying ratios every second.

Now I sound like Kakuzu, well, not that I hate sounding like an S-rank nin.

We went over to Yakiniku Q, which was, interestingly enough, around even now.

The succulent taste of barbecue, it really has been too long.

"Ah, Minato, eat as much as you want, if I run dry I'll just put it on my tab."

"Your tab?"

"A subtle benefit of being in a clan, most restaurants let you make a tab with no problems, because you're that much less likely to not pay, lots of 'em do it for active ninja too."

"That's certainly a curious piece of trivia."

"Just one of those things you learn randomly." Actually, some author saw fit to insert pretty much what I just said in a little side note. Not that Minato needs to know, and it _was_ random, so really not a lie.

The Namikaze appeared to enjoy his meal, if the gusto with which he kept eating was anything to go by. At length, the meal ended, and I walked the other boy home, cracking a joke about protecting him from a certain ferocious Uzumaki as I did so.

I got home rather late, to be expected, but I considered it to be worth the trouble, in any case, my family was not inconvenienced, as I had told them the day before.

"Back from frolicking with no-names?" Fugaku asked, displeased that I had given time of the day to an orphan.

I smirked back at my brother, "Curiously enough, he does have a name, Namikaze Minato." I replied, in no way miffed about the whole affair, in fact I found it amusing.

"He has no family."

"And neither do Orochimaru-sensei, or Jiraiya-san, yet they still garner respect wherever they go."

"This Namikaze is no Hokage's student, nor is he a jonin."

"Ah but you see Nii-san, mark my words; he will be Hokage."

"You've bought into that rubbish? I didn't take you for an idiot."

"And for that I am thankful. But rubbish it is not, simple fact stands supreme." I stated, not said, not asked, not exclaimed, I stated, and it visibly shook Fugaku's opinion.

"I look forward to seeing if you are a prophet." So saying, the older male turned and went to his room.

"So do I, Nii-san, so do I," I whispered to his shut door.

I grabbed a book out of my little library, _Comprehensive List of Clans_ I looked at the date, good, it was a new book. Reading it turned out quite informative, the little lecture in the Academy was written by the sensei it seemed, not standard issue text-book material.

How do I know you ask? I found out that Konoha has more clans than I thought. Though to be frank, some are not 'recognized' which, quite simply, means that as far as Konoha is concerned, they enjoy no special rights.

Of course, prominent recognized clans include the Senju, Sarutobi, and Shimura.

In any case, Fugaku-nii's frustration is disappointing, if amusing, but if he doesn't change I might have to usurp; seriously, getting into the whole coup thing is not on my to-do list. That being said, I have arrogance in my abilities, I'm sure I can stop the whole coup/massacre, they _are _related to the Kyuubi attack, I'm just not sure how.

Really, I should have looked at the wiki more and learned all this 'useless' trivia.

Nonetheless, I'm afraid that the simple fact is, my influence is not to be overestimated, nor should I believe that nothing is different, truly, things shall be different, for I have influenced Minato of all people.

Time flies while you're sleeping, so, in my aching opinion, the night was all too short. But, Orochimaru is nothing if not demanding, and punctual for that matter, so I doubt highly that I'll be heading over to the training ground late.

Because, let's be honest, who doesn't like pleasing their teacher, to a degree at least? Actually, don't answer that, I might be rather put out with the answer.

Muddled mentalities and boring thoughts aside, I needed to go, so go I did.

As it turned out, I was the first there anyway, and I doubt that I misheard where to meet up. Oh well, nothing like stretches to while away the time.

"Good morning, Nanashi-kun."

I bolted upright, stupid me, I should have been paying more attention, "Good morning, Sensei."

"Where are the other two whelps?"

"Behind you."

"Good." Kaede and Hiashi came out from behind Orochimaru as he said this.

Little tests and subtle trials were the name of the game; Orochimaru paid attention to detail and expected the same from his students. Usually, he would test the one who got to the training ground first, which is why I was targeted today.

Generally, I woke up impossibly sore from the day before's labor.

"What's on the agenda today?"

"Dodging as usual," I looked up, wondering why he hadn't said what D-rank was for today, "After our very own lawn mowing mission."

Orochimaru's protruding cheekbones suddenly looked more sinister; for some accursed reason gas-powered lawn-mowers were a thing not yet discovered. Therefore, the push-mowers in use were completely human-powered.

Of course, this was not without benefits, a ninja should always be training or getting ready to, and pushing around a 'lawn-mower' is good exercise. Nevertheless, the eventual extreme boredom of constant D-ranks weighs on a boy's mind, perhaps this was the point?

Or am I, perchance, seeing conspiracies in the shadows? Well, they do say that paranoia, not extreme, is a shinobi's friend.

Theories of grand plans to improve the mental integrity of rookie genin aside, I had a lawn to mow. With chakra enhanced dispersion of lactic acid, ninja could last almost twice as long as a normal person.

Time passed, and the job was completed, so, after receiving our pay, we met up at our very own training ground. Well, not that anyone but Konoha owns them.

"So, what have we learned today?"

"We have learned nothing, because some of the lessons some of us learned were already learned by others of us," Okay, so I like sassing off with technically correct stuff, what kid doesn't?

"No, we learned that you are most disrespectful."

I nodded, conceding the point without useless argument.

"And as such, a lesson must be taught, no?"

None of us answered. Orochimaru was completely stoic and calm; his general attitude, the insanity from constant body jumping and experimentation not yet present.

"Run little hatchlings, run." He spoke abruptly, snakes emerging from the ground around him and out of his loose clothing.

Fangs nearly gleaming, the obviously poisonous snakes began chasing all three of us; apparently, we were ready for a real life-or-death situation. Or maybe the snake man was just eager to see us terrified.

Well, it's not as if we weren't used to this behavior by now, as our new kunai-dodging abilities could attest to.

And so, run we did, and we ran quickly indeed, have I ever mentioned how very fast snakes are? Too fast for comfort, if I do say so myself.

"Stupid snakes, Sensei will just get you killed," I turned as I said this, pausing before, "Katon: Great Fireball!"

Hand-seals already finished, the technique spewed out from by mouth in its flame-thrower form; fiery agony encased several snakes to slow to get away, burnt to a crisp before they could even protest.

Hiashi and Kaede looked jealous, ah, civilian born kunoichi, and super-taijutsu family Hyuuga, not surprising then that they have no ninjutsu of destructive nature.

Well, they can wallow in that jealousy, I'm not just going to find jutsu to teach them because they looked miffed they hadn't thought of it already. Honestly, for genin, the library is a true treasure trove of useful stuff.

Pushing such things away from my already over-packed mental state; more snakes were coming quickly. And, frankly, I don't fancy dying in some twisted training session.

So, the answer is simple, don't die. I think that's the point Orochimaru-sensei really wants to drive home here, the will to live. Without doing something truly satisfying we, as humans, are not ready to die, and so we try to live.

Maybe I'm reading into a different angle than he is trying for, but I'm fairly sure this is the gist.

I channeled chakra to my whip, activating my Sharingan as I did so. A few downward and diagonal lashes finished what snakes were close, but I kept my Sharingan on, knowing that this could be the end.

And boy was it not, if a snake five times my size is anything to go by. Inside was panicking slightly, but I had an image to keep up, Uchiha pride and all that.

I flipped back a hair that wasn't even in my way, "Wow. Are you trying to kill me?" I asked, with a completely deadpan monotone voice.

I looked so thoroughly unimpressed that the semi-intelligent snake paused, looking back to its summoner.

"Stupid snake, attack!" Was Orochimaru's angry reply to the un-vocalized question.

The green, enormous, snake looked back to me, licking its lips at the thought of my deliciousness. Well, I certainly hope that's why.

"I yawn at you." I stated, making no move to actually yawn. This, despite its mute state, clearly angered the vicious viper, and it showed as much by coming at me.

Fast.

Well, chakra sticks to a tree, good thing ninja are fast too. I looked down from my leafy perch, noting with a pained visage that the snake was easily tall enough to come get me. Not that I ever intended to just sit here.

I sped through the hand-seals again, this time with slightly different intent, "Katon: Great Fireball!" A massive ball of super-hot chakra emerged from my mouth with all the fury of a ten year-old.

The snake quickly changed its tack, speeding off to the side to avoid death. I assume _not_ death, not really sure how summons work actually, don't they just get un-summoned?

Point being, in a poof of smoke, after its tail had been hit, the snake disappeared.

"Was that allowed, or do I have to not fight back?"

"You just have to," He was behind me without my even knowing, "Liiiive."

I automatically jumped away, fortunate for my state of life if the number of presumably poisonous snakes at my former position was anything to go by.

"Of course sensei, is it not a teacher's most treasured wish to see his students succeed in life?"

"But of course you'd read into things, I just don't want to waste my time on talentless fools."

I've gotta say, if I were Anko I'd think something like 'wow, he really does want the best for me, he's just being awkward about it!' and worship him silently from the shadows. Knowing Orochimaru's so called 'evilness' though, I have to think, 'this guy really does value his time, huh?'

I wasn't awfully eager to keep using chakra to defeat the infinity snakes, but to be honest, there wasn't much choice. So, spend chakra I did, with great effect.

By the end of our little survival session I was utterly exhausted, and completely in awe of the sheer quantity of snakes summoned.

I like to think that there was a point, other than intense exercise and proof of the will to live, but for the life of me I can't figure out what. That's not to say I'm unimpressed with the whole affair, instead I was rather awed by Orochimaru's level of power, and thoroughly surprised that I made it to the end.

**1 Month Later**

Here it is, the glorious conclusion of two weeks of work and my personal best fuinjutsu accomplishment: Chakra Storage.

It's really quite simple, all you do is put chakra into some kind of object, even liquids will do, and then seal that object into a scroll tightly.

Of course, this in itself would mean nothing, but I, in my great intelligence, have discovered that chakra can be recovered. It's actually so intensely inefficient that it's no wonder it's not common practice, a chakra pill is 100 times better.

Plus, it has to be your own chakra, unless of course you have a chakra absorbing bloodline, in which case it'd be rather redundant.

This all works because inside a sealing scroll, the regular laws of dispersion don't apply, in effect, this means that while in the outside world chakra channeled into an object naturally shoots of into its surroundings inside the scroll this doesn't apply.

And, while unconventional, it's possible to recover your own chakra from an object, just so long as it hasn't mixed so much with other chakra that it no longer comes under your control.

This actually brings up an important point, if something's chakra is so polluted with your own, it can come under your control. For most objects, this is just impracticably expensive, as chakra is in everything.

But, with exceptional control, it's possible to be telekinetic with certain objects of small size and material. I wonder if this is related to the Ichibi's control over sand, perhaps its own chakra is so similar that its control extends to the sand.

That'd also explain phenomena like the Third Kazekage's control of iron; maybe he was born with a chakra signature so very similar to magnetic iron that he can simply move it at will. Kind of like the Phoenix Sage Fire Technique, it can be controlled to go in the direction the user desires.

This also explains why my whip is easier to use while I have chakra in it, my mind is subconsciously telling it where to go. Of course, this was all so intriguing that I couldn't exactly leave it to myself, which brings us to now.

"And that's my theory," I concluded, expectantly waiting for my sensei to form some kind of rebuttal or encouragement.

"Kukuku, how very interesting, yes, even I didn't expect this much from you."

Well, encouragement it is, I won't even need to demonstrate it at this rate.

"But, it'd be much more convincing if you could prove it."

I confidently pulled out a piece of paper specially prepared just for this. I'd been saturating it with my chakra for quite some time, and now it responded quite significantly to my will.

I set it down at the table, removing my hands, but keeping them in sight, and then I concentrated. I watched in repetitive fascination as the paper swayed to and fro, going so far as to float for a bit.

The Sannin was suitably impressed, "I see, now _that _is interesting." He got a faraway look, his own massive intellect working overtime to apply this to his work.

"Now to continue, with extrapolation, we can assume that it's possible to change ones chakra to suit some kind of material, rather than simply overwhelming what little chakra an inanimate object possesses. We already know that chakra can be changed in its very nature, expressed every single day with elemental techniques."

"So, you wish to say that one can change chakra into something other than the elements."

"I'm really not bringing anything new to the table; isolated cases of ninja using strange techniques are not uncommon. As I said earlier, the Sandaime Kazekage is an example of such."

"But," I continued before he could answer, "It's also exponentially difficult without a preexisting alignment to such things, commonly referred to as chakra nature. This is why these unique specimens mostly use only their special talent. It's why Konoha ninja don't use water techniques overall; they simply don't have an affinity for it."

"Very, _very_, interesting, I do hope you'll continue to make such discoveries while I do my own experimenting, I'll inform the Sarutobi-sensei of course."

"Go ahead; I just hope you can come up with some groundbreaking use of my discovery. Also, I hope you have a way to identify an object's signature, otherwise it's all trial and error." I got up, feeling rather proud of myself for leaving even Orochimaru mildly speechless through this whole affair.

But, honestly, I only shared this with him to cement myself as his favorite student; that kind of privilege doesn't come along every day. If only I had known just how incredibly successful it would be.

**XXX**

I looked down at my hands in frustration, I hated grinding, no; I _really _hated grinding. Which, of course, explained my frustration with my current mundane task: Hitting the Flagpole.

Well, not really a flagpole, but punching away at a post to get arm strength didn't appeal to me. At. All. Naturally, my own mature self kept reminding me how petty I was being, so, with unvoiced protest, I did it anyway.

It didn't stop me from practicing my Burning Touch technique though. Honestly, doing two things at once, or more, was a necessity for a busy guy like me. Seriously, my honored father has seen fit to bestow upon my proudly polite self the incredible honor of etiquette lessons.

Fugaku, in his own educated state, saw fit to rub in this rather awful state of affairs. It's not that I particularly disliked the lessons, or the teacher thereof, so much as I perceived them to be a waste of time for a busy guy like me.

Honestly, I was hoping to focus on fuinjutsu and now I'm diverted to taijutsu and politicking. Not fun.

Seriously, no one respects mushy mouthed guys; they respect well-spoken, polite, firm, and utterly handsome individuals. And, if my current looks are anything to go by, I'll fit at least three of those.

I punched again, ignoring the cauterization of my bloody hands in favor of punching again. At least with something like this you could let your mind wander a little.

In any case, it seems my little thinking session, and Orochimaru's subsequent report to Sarutobi, went well. I like figuring out pseudo-science like chakra and fuinjutsu, and who knows, maybe, if I do enough thinking, I'll make it into a real science.

Nothing like telling the Hokage, "You want to control paper, make your chakra act like paper." And don't say it's impossible, obviously Konan was successful. That's not to say that just anybody can do it, but, with proper investigation and training, Konoha might just have a special metal/paper/glass-kinetic force in a few years.

Hopefully Danzo is not the one to pursue this, though I wouldn't be surprised if he was, never liked the guy. Not that I've met him, to be frank.

I punched again, maybe it really was time to crack down and learn that Rasengan, yes, I think it is.

I finished my quota of punches, and then sauntered over to the hospital, luckily, the Uchiha have their very own medic-nin here, so, I can kiss my wounds good-bye.

"Training, wooden pole, unintentional, totally expected, completely minor, the pain is throbbing." I rattled off, happy with my own memory prowess.

The doctor looked unimpressed, opting to just write my answers to the mandatory questions down wordlessly before healing my hands up.

"Have a good day," He said rather mechanically as he got up to leave.

"You as well sir, may life favor you with good fortune because of your goodness to me." It sounded so much like a starving person thanking their savior that it was almost funny; almost. Starving is no way to die, and certainly not funny.

Choking on your own blood while you bled out was no way to die either; and one that was entirely gross. I hated washing clothes, and bloodstains always meant you had to. On that note, blood doesn't actually spurt out much from wounds on the neck, but even a little is cause for concern.

I suppose this is my own extraordinary way of coping with killing, worrying about cleaning my clothes afterwards. But really, killing can be so expensive.

I hurried back to the Uchiha training grounds, where I would not be seen by enemy eyes. I'd not forgotten to bring the toughest and most spherical water balloons available, to my wallet's dismay.

Fortunately for me, D-ranks provided a reasonable supplement to my allowance, plus I didn't have to pay for most of my meals. Let it not be said that belonging to a clan is without advantages, though the responsibilities are not inconsequential.

Now, swirl my chakra inside the balloon without popping it. Or does popping come first? I think it does, let's go with that.

I focused, sending my chakra into the water, noting the strange interaction between the two. I hope this was done with a water balloon, and not a normal one, I think I've got this right.

I starting rotating my chakra around, in every direction at once or some such hog-wash, right? Not a thing, if that's what it did the sphere wouldn't rotate, so at the very least, one direction trumped the others.

I relished the feeling of the water spinning faster and faster as I got the hang of it. Eventually the centrifugal force would burst the balloon, so I continued. For minutes the swirling accelerated, but I pressed on, and finally, in one abysmally wet display, the balloon burst.

At those kinds of speeds… well, let's just say I can understand why this is… was… will be a feared technique. Now to do it faster.

I spent all evening speeding up my 0 to 60 acceleration, finally hitting an acceptable mark for the day after using up almost all of my balloons. Before turning in for the night, I ate an uneventful meal with my family.

I got up as early as always, stretching and eating before heading out to meet with my genin team. D-rank done, we then moved on to kunai throwing, each of us working on a different aspect, for myself this was speed and left-handed throwing, plus the all-around moving target practice.

It's actually surprising how much you know about how kunai move after you've dodged hundreds of them. Orochimaru really is an excellent teacher.

The end of our team session came none too soon for me, as I was eager to get back to the Rasengan. I did not neglect to buy more balloons, and fill them at home.

I was not stupid, there was no way I'd be using the Rasengan wherever I went, or even in front of anyone. It was Minato's signature jutsu, and it would stay that way.

No, if anyone saw it, it'd be because they'd be dead by it in short order.

Those thoughts aside, I picked up a water balloon, now to go as fast without popping it.

There was only one way to do this, make it turn inward even more. This is the part that makes it 'self-sustaining' no doubt.

I channeled my chakra, willing it to make tighter turns, with some success at the early levels. The degree of control required to keep it where I wanted it was rather high though. Higher than I could consistently manage, if the broken balloon in my palm was anything to go by.

No one said it'd be easy, continue.

I willed my chakra faster; it had to be fast, while pushing it to make tighter and tighter turns, not forgetting to tell it to go in every possible direction.

Maybe I was looking at this wrong, perhaps the sphere as a whole rotated, while the chakra that made it went every which way inside. Well, nothing I couldn't try.

**Three Days Later**

Hah! Insider information really was king. That is, if the fact that the balloon doesn't pop anymore is anything to go by.

As it turned out, my theory was correct; the ball of chakra was something like its own entity turning every which way inside of itself and rotating as a whole. It was a strange situation where a… molecule, if you will, of chakra moved to the right, but its final destination was to its left.

I was all rather hard to explain, and I won't say I understand the technique yet, I still need to pop a rubber ball with it.

Actually, maybe my understanding is incorrect, what if chakra worked like gravity? In essence, this would mean that chakra is attracted to other sources of chakra, the larger the source, the greater the attraction.

So, with a dense sphere of chakra, all its wayward parts that would otherwise leave due to centrifugal force are pulled back in with the 'gravity'. Making the Rasengan like one big network of satellites, except these ones orbit the chakra.

That actually makes a good bit of sense, but I'm not going to put money on it. I could just be getting carried away because no one is here to prove me wrong.

Anyway, I doubt anyone'll ever fully understand the laws of chakra, if it even has them. We could get into a huge debate over why the human mind, and Bijuu for that matter, can control such a pseudo-physical energy.

It all screams of fantasy world, oh joy, this is fantasy world. Maybe I should come to terms with that first? Heck, I'm not even sure that all the laws of physics even apply here. Luckily, or unluckily, I don't know all the laws of physics.

This is all one massive rabbit trail though; for now, I need a rubber ball or two. Unsurprisingly, it took a while to find a suitably solid piece of unforgiving black rubber. I have no idea if there was anything special about Jiraiya's ball, so solid it is.

I marched over to my training ground, picking up the ball with confidence.

Overconfidence it seemed, channeling chakra through the ball was far harder than saturating water with it. Nevertheless, I continued, willing my chakra to spin, it didn't work, it didn't budge. Perhaps if I kept my chakra ethereal until the moment of truth?

I did as much, swirling my intangible chakra in the area occupied by the ball in that indescribable manner. Faster and faster it spun, until I suddenly turned it into physical chakra that could interact with reality, the ball lurched and groaned, cracks forming all over it.

But it did not burst. The thing had to burst, I just knew it. I didn't even know if this was the way to do it.

In any case, I can certainly see why Kakashi added elemental chakra to his own attempt at the Rasengan. It's laughably tempting to just turn my chakra into a blazing inferno that would easily obliterate the ball. But, there's a reason Minato didn't do this in his life-time, it's not safe.

Well, I assume that's the reason, maybe the blonde just wanted it to be wind chakra so bad he didn't bother with other natures.

Sounds like something he might do.

I picked up my second ball, this time letting my chakra remain physical the entire time. The ball was so solid however, that it just spun around and around along with. Dangerous, but not what I was looking for.

Still, I kept at it, reasoning that the inside of the ball was being torn to shreds by the many-directional chakra. In fact, I kept at it so long that I began to get dizzy, all that spinning giving me my worst yet head-ache, in this world. I'd had worse before though.

I woozily inspected the ball for damage, finding absolutely zero, I must have overlooked something. Maybe I had forgotten to spin my chakra every which way?

That didn't seem likely, I lazily swirled chakra inside the rubber ball, what was I missing? Water and rubber were fundamentally different, was I misunderstanding some other part?

Perhaps I just needed to hold onto the rubber ball with my other hand, forcing to remain still while my chakra forced it to move, in the end making it disintegrate.

Or was I misunderstanding the 'in every direction' when you think about it, fundamentally a sphere spinning is actually going every direction.

That had to be it; my understanding was shoddy, my training sloppy, and my results wimpy. I went at once and bought more water balloons, and an extra rubber ball.

I inserted chakra into a water balloon, spinning the water at an impossible speed, popping the balloon in less than two minutes. Too slow, I repeated the action, no change.

Hmmm, there had to be a better way, layers; that had to be it. I layered my sphere; essentially, this meant that one quarter inch layer turned clockwise, the next layer counterclockwise, and so on, until the sphere was completed.

I spun it inside a water balloon relishing the feeling of thrumming power inside. I accelerated it, causing the water to become so disturbed that the balloon stretched like crazy, but it did not burst. I was not amazed, nor was I disappointed, this would work on the rubber, I knew it would, the balloon was just a test of stability.

I picked up a rubber ball, channeling chakra into it in the same manner, now for speed.

I spun my chakra around and around, nearly losing some of my layers a couple of times.

Unsurprisingly, the ball was wrenched into pieces under the opposite forces once I reached something close to my top speed.

Yes, this would do nicely, very nicely.

Time to test this piece of work out; I marched over to a post, already forming the orb of destruction called Rasengan.

I marveled at the blue appearance and started to feel chakra drain, so I quickly slammed it into the pole, relishing the way it gave way before the churning of my chakra. The sphere went straight through, even as I released it and it spun away, finally dispersing after a few feet.

Yes, one Rasengan for a week's work, not bad Nanashi my friend, not bad.

**A/N: So, chapter ten is out of the bag.**

**Before you all chew me out for… go ahead, I'm happy with this chapter.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. **_**Please**_** Review, less than 10% of people do, don't you want to be in the top 10 percentile? Eh, whatever, I'll keep on writing, even if you don't. Still, I like to hear **_**your**_** thoughts and opinions.**

**-Honestly,**

**Iamwhononofyouare**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or Orochimaru, kukuku.**

**Chapter 11**

By no means did I consider the Rasengan mastered, I could barely do the basic one; to continue in mastery I'd first have to perfect this, and then move on to personalization.

But that could wait, for now I needed to… get my first C-rank apparently.

"Do be careful out there Orochimaru-kun, I'd hate to lose you _or _your students," Hiruzen, said as he stamped his approval, looking all too young today.

Well, I'm not very enthusiastic about this; I had been looking forward to experimentation with my Rasengan. Anyway, something about escorting some rich man to Tea Country.

He hadn't disclosed his business in Konoha, but now that I see him… I can guess. Safely, depositing his beautiful mistress away from his not-so-beautiful wife, maybe I'm being unfair to him because of his impressive looks. But, that is my impression.

Things like that don't interest me though; I'm more concerned about the fact that bandit risk is listed as high.

How do I know you ask? Orochimaru let us three peruse the mission scroll. Somehow I think this is all some kind of first-blood mission. But hey, I've always seen conspiracies everywhere; everything has got to be planned, right?

Meh, spontaneous stuff happens too.

Our client was shorter than Orochimaru, but still a tall man. He kept a tidy and tiny chin beard, had handsome light blue eyes, and wore a clearly expensive green robe.

Hey, don't blame me; I never studied what's a kimono, or a yukata, or bathrobe, so I won't say which. He wore… boots, interestingly enough; I'd never seen boots on anyone here. Of course, my description of him would be incomplete without mentioning his hair.

It was incredibly smooth and he wore it in a ponytail, the color was a perfectly medium brown.

The reason for the boots was apparent soon enough.

"This is my man Akira, and I'm Mitsuhide, heir to some big estate down in the Land of Tea, you wouldn't know it," Our client informed as he mounted his horse, his man mounting his own.

"While I do apologize for not bringing horses for all of you, I don't expect you even know how to ride. Besides, ninja are fast, right? Well, we're not galloping anyway my hired friends." He smiled down at us congenially.

"I'm sure we'll be fine, Mitsuhide-san," Orochimaru gave the man his creepy grin, and we set off through the south gate.

Mitsuhide paused for a minute in conversation before speaking again, "Aha! I knew I knew you from somewhere, you're one of those three legendary students of the Sandaime aren't you?"

Tea Country was connected to only Fire Country, so nearly 100% of their ninja were hired from Konoha, thus, calling Sarutobi 'Sandaime' rather than 'Sandaime Hokage' is not unusual.

"Yes, I am Orochimaru, at your service," Sensei replied nicely, he didn't get up in the world by showing only his sadistic side.

I took this as our cue to introduce ourselves, "I am Uchiha Nanashi, very pleased to make your acquaintance, Mitsuhide-san."

"Hyuuga Hiashi, heir to the Hyuuga clan, you'll be safe with us."

"Hironaka Kaede, I'm nothing special," So lackluster, my female friend, that won't win you points.

"My, my, with such distinguished guards I really do have nothing to fear," He chuckled.

Mitsuhide's horse was mahogany in color, with an expensive saddle and bridle.

I saw no reason to not make conversation so I spoke up, "With such a fine horse even skilled bandits couldn't catch you, why pay for protection?"

He laughed a little nervously, "To be honest, I'm coming back with a lot of expensive jewelry, and some of these bandits are quite intelligent, I'm sure they know by now," He brightened before continuing, "Besides, my father is a rich man, the cost of a C-rank mission is hardly prohibitive."

"Are you looking forward to inheriting, or do you place more stock in the freedom of not owning land?"

"Honestly? Father is a wise man, far better at managing tenants then I'll ever be; I'd like for him to live forever. Still, he won't, and I'm not going to squander our family's wealth, so I suppose duty brings me home."

"Very responsible, I can respect that."

Mitsuhide raised an eyebrow at me, looking me over, why would he… Ah! I'm so very tiny, like a ten year-old, well, I am one. He's probably wondering over my manner of speech and my oh-so-mature replies.

Anyway, he seems a good fellow, perhaps I misjudged him? It's of no consequence, we're hired to keep him safe, so safe he shall be.

We walked on, or rode on, depending which of us you're talking about, for about half-an-hour in silence, before I again broke the rapidly repairing ice.

"So, who's the lucky recipient?"

Mitsuhide looked at me for a bit, then his expression illuminated, "Of the jewelry, yes?"

I nodded as he continued, "It's for my mother, Father is busy so he really doesn't have time to buy these things, I however, am more than happy to get out and run some errands."

"So, Tea Country doesn't have fine jewelers I take it?"

"How very insightful, it's true; Tea Country doesn't really have a lot of raw material for that kind of thing, so it's far too expensive for a jeweler to work down there."

"Interesting, I hope this doesn't count as prying, but are you married?"

"Well, it'd be no secret if I was or wasn't, so, prying it is not; and no, I'm not married."

"I see, then I hope you'll find the right one soon."

"Or that Father will find her for me, I'd rather marry for love, but that's just because I've read too many novels."

"Well, love doesn't always come before marriage, it can come after."

He got a faraway look, "Yes, yes, I suppose it can."

We walked on in silence again.

My thoughts, however, were far from silent, this time on the subject of weaponry. I loved weapons that could keep a sword wielder away, a result of always being the little guy. However, I was aware of the flaws in my current whip, the thing was always eager to stop cutting at the braid points, and the force was unevenly distributed.

In combat, this could result in one string of the whip getting caught in the enemy's body while the rest went straight through. While this wasn't an issue if I was dueling one-on-one, shinobi fights tended to be unfair.

One second of delay would get me killed in one-on-two, even against relatively untrained hostiles.

I needed something sturdier and more reliable, but no less pliable. This was a dilemma, I was no engineer but even I knew that a chain would not do, to clunky.

Ninja wire of the thickest sort might get me through if it weren't so stiff. There could be only one answer, fuinjutsu, or chakra strings. That's two answers, whatever, doesn't everyone get screwed up every once in a while?

Look at me, arguing with myself. I didn't really have the skill, knowledge or control for strings, so, time to read my book.

I whipped out a scroll, carefully unsealing it so the just my fuinjutsu book popped out. Hey, no one said to bring only essentials.

Under everyone's watchful gaze I began looking over reinforcement seals.

I scowled upon reading this little tidbit: _It should be noted that while reinforcing equipment is great, it also severely limits the ability of said equipment to withstand extra chakra strain. This is why it's counter-productive to keep slapping on seals to objects, the things just disintegrate, too much foreign chakra fighting for dominance._

_However, this is also why, with care, an object can be loaded with any number of precisely the same seals without consequence. I've also found that these rules apply to channeling chakra into the object._

_A seal-less object has no adverse reaction to being loaded with chakra, but, one with seals reacts poorly to such an action._

Basically, conflicting chakra = disintegration, curiously, this also provides some interesting information, assuming my earlier theories are correct; each seal has a different chakra signature.

If we extrapolate, this means that items, objects, even persons, can be controlled with the right seal. Not mentally, instead, their very chakra can come under someone else's control.

Example, assuming my theory is correct, two people with identical chakra signatures (this never happens) interact, but, if one of them has superior chakra control by a significant margin, it should be possible to dictate what the other person's chakra does.

This happens because the chakra finds no reason to not obey, since its 'master' is ordering it to do so. If this is all true (and it's probably not) this makes chakra control a very serious skill, I mean, who wants someone else to tell _their_ chakra what to do.

If we assume that chakra is related to the mind, then, theoretically, if two identical minds meet, only one can decide where the chakra goes. Of course, there is no such thing as two identical minds, just as there are no two identical chakra signatures.

All this is rather far from the subject of my whip, and wholly unproven, so, the question is, seals or channeled chakra?

The second is more diverse, by a mile, but the first is much cheaper. Example, I use my chakra for channeling and then suddenly, I have none to do my favorite technique, oh no! I'm dead.

Then we can take it to the other side, I have only one whip, it's reinforced with seals, the enemy is using the rock-skin technique, and I can't cut him, oh no! I can't beat the rock-skin anyway, let's find a new example. Well, maybe the extra cutting power from channeling would do it?

Example, I want to burn someone, and doesn't that sound sadistic, but my whip is full of seals, easy, use the burning touch on him. Yes, it seems that reinforced isn't so bad. Sturdier, more reliable, but less diverse and damaging,

Hard choices, with an easy answer, get both. Good thing I brought my long-forgotten long whip! I made to unseal it, but had second thoughts, I couldn't exactly write fuinjutsu onto one or the other while I walked.

It'd be next to impossible stationary! The circumference of ninja wire was not much; writing seals on a surface like that would not be fun. In fact, I doubted I could succeed.

I then activated my Sharingan, wanting to test a theory. Now, the Sharingan can observe chakra to a significant extent, even letting someone like me, with three-tomoe, the ability to discern color.

What does this have to do with my current task? Simple, if I can observe something's chakra, and then force my chakra to become like it, I should be able to control it.

I jumped out of position, drawing a frown from Kaede, and leapt back quickly, now toting several leaves.

I stared at them, attempting to synchronize our chakras, with little success, my own human blue wasn't getting any greene…r. Too bad I couldn't look at Hashirama's cells, if his chakra were greenish and similar to the flow if trees and leaves, that would explain wood release.

I glanced at Orochimaru, he would have some of the legendary Hokage's cells soon enough, if memory served me right. Gosh, I really wish I looked all this up before I came to this forsaken manga.

This was impossible, there had to be a better way. Let's think, implanting Hashirama's cells got both Danzo and Madara the wood release, right? Well, I know it did for Danzo, so let's focus on that.

I struggled to keep up with the tiny caravan as my mind churned.

But the Mokuton used Danzo's chakra, so… Hashirama's cells would have had to filter out the chakra, fundamentally changing it to something different, and yet Danzo was still in control.

That doesn't make any sense, either my theories are all wrong, I'm thinking about this incorrectly, or… I completely came to a stop, this was an AU. Of course it was, I existed, but would that really change the fundamental laws of chakra?

"Nanashi-kun, it's not polite to lag behind."

I snapped up, widening my eyes as I hurried to catch up.

There was just one life-raft left for my theory, control. If we assume that chakra is weird, we know it is actually, we can say that since Danzo had complete control of the arm, he had complete control of the chakra that came out of it.

This throws out the idea that someone can control another's chakra, something I am far from loath to do. So, to control something, it has to be without a will of its own?

Something like a plant, or sand, or _any _inanimate object. Let's back up a little bit; if Hashirama's cells 'filtered' Danzo's chakra, then what I needed was a filter, some kind of method to change my chakra.

Once again, fuinjutsu was the answer, from my earlier findings; fuinjutsu changes chakra signatures around even without intent. All I needed to do was find which exact seal corresponded to each object, and then pour _my _chakra in, and, probably, it would still recognize me as its master, allowing me to use it.

This actually made sense; Gaara still had control of sand, even after the Ichibi left, most likely because he still remembered what chakra felt like when it controlled sand.

This boat still floats for now, Nanashi my friend.

Perhaps I'm being too optimistic, but striving to understand at least some of the intricacies of chakra seems to be a worthy goal.

We walked on in silence again.

One thing should be said about me, I absolutely _hate _doing nothing, and walking along certainly counted as nothing. Doing nothing was utterly useless and inefficient, and therefore totally unacceptable.

So, rather than hate myself for doing nothing, I came to the brilliant conclusion of conversation.

"So, Sensei, what did Hokage-sama think of my thoughts?" I asked lowly, I wasn't about to let Mitsuhide in on this.

"He was most surprised that a fresh genin like you would be so interested in the workings of chakra, and quite supportive of the idea, if less than as enthusiastic as you are."

"Yes, talking about it is all well and good, but it's unproven, just a plausible hypothesis."

"That's the next thing to work on then, isn't it, Nanashi-kun?"

"Yes, I do believe it is."

"How much do you know about seals, Sensei?"

"I know many things, my little student, why?"

"I've been thinking, here, it's easier to demonstrate." Orochimaru looked on in interest as I drew a stability seal on a piece of paper.

I held up one finger on my left hand, dramatically channeling chakra into the paper with my right hand. Once I had reached the threshold, the paper turned to dust.

I held up another paper, this time with no seals, and channeled chakra into it. And kept on channeling for minutes, yet the paper stayed as it was.

"So, quantity of chakra isn't what makes the paper break, instead, it's conflict, the chakra signature of the seal is not quite the same as my own, and so there was conflict."

"Eventually, the paper couldn't withstand this mystical battle, and turned into dust."

I noticed the questioning looks all around.

"Now," I pulled out another piece of paper, this one I had made come under my control.

I made it flit about; drawing Orochimaru's attention to the conversation we had had a little while ago.

"If we say that each item has a chakra signature, and each seal has one too, what are the chances we can make them coincide?"

Understanding dawned on my sensei's face, the ramifications of what I said sinking in.

"What's the big deal?" Kaede asked finally, frustrated by her lack of understanding.

"As you all well know, the 3rd Kazekage has control over his famous magnetic sand. What I'm proposing is a way to make this skill nothing special, even redundant and low-ranking. With this, if successful, one could control _anything_ from glass, to sand, to trees, to dirt, to the very air itself, and perhaps even beyond."

Now didn't that sound grand, I'll probably be in my 50's before this happens though, kids.

"All we have to do is make a seal that filters chakra into another nature, like paper, and then, hopefully, the chakra will still obey its source, me in this case, thus granting at least some degree of control over paper."

Obviously, it had limitations, while with Konan it was a personal skill or talent, allowing her to have total control, with this, only a portion of the subject's chakra would be changed, thus limiting its effectiveness. But, I don't limit it, it's possible that people can learn to change their chakra into other natures than the elements, pioneering the field is the difficulty.

To let me explain, it's relatively common for ninja to learn a second chakra nature by the end of their career, in this case, instead of learning Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning, or Earth, they'd learn Paper, Sand, or Iron, something like that.

It doesn't sound so impossible like this; we just need an original…

"Orochimaru, did you ever meet a girl named Konan?" I may have just dug my own grave, knowing things I can't know, but this is worth it.

He had a pensive look on his face, "Yes, the blue-haired unfortunate in Ame, didn't Jiraiya stay and teach her with those other two for a bit?"

"Yes, he did, did you know she has genuine paper techniques?"

"How would you know?" He asked, somewhat suspiciously.

"Minato got the story from Jiraiya and then told it to me," He didn't, but my mind _does _go a mile a minute.

"Anyway, where's this all springing from?"

"If we could get her to describe what it's like, she should be able to pass the skill on, even to someone without an affinity."

"I see."

"This would preclude the need for the fuinjutsu filters, allowing someone to use it as naturally as Lightning jutsu in a Fire-natured individual. Or course; if it's a blood-line I doubt it'd be so simple."

Unless, of course, chakra natures themselves are blood-lines, hence, every Uchiha is Fire-natured to some degree. That's actually a good thing to look into; both Minato and Naruto were wind-natured after-all, so it seems somewhat genetic.

I'm not yet aware of my own affinity, but I doubt it's anything but fire, it comes so very naturally.

The Hyuuga are certainly an interesting anomaly, 0 Hyuuga are without the Byakugan, maybe it's a cover up? I doubt it, I'm sure someone would have spilled the beans by now.

Hopefully all this steers Orochimaru away from his experiments on humans, rather than to them.

Eventually, we stopped for the day, settling down around a camp-fire, I took first watch, lasting a little over two hours.

Idly, I turned on my Sharingan, scanning the surroundings for foemen before returning my gaze to the fire.

I looked closer, tilting my head to the side; it looked familiar, very familiar. I formed a flame from chakra over my palm, holding it up to the fire in my view.

Now _that _was uncanny, I sent fire chakra over to the fire, feeling no conflict or resistance, rather; the fire burned higher and brighter.

I removed my chakra from the system, time to test m theory.

I concentrated on my chakra sense, reaching out to the camp-fire. It was faint, but the fire leaned towards me, despite the opposing wind. I tilted my head farther over to the side, now telling the fire to go into the sky.

Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. Not yet finished, I sent a tiny portion of my own chakra into the fire. I concentrated, forming the pliant mix into a blazing fireball.

I smiled as launched my newest technique into the sky, turning around and scanning for enemies again as I did so. As I found no one, I returned my gaze to the now distant ball of flames.

There was no way that I had sent enough of my own chakra to make that big of a ball, which means: Even fire jutsu can use their surroundings. I smiled, this wasn't actually a secret, but this did lend a certain degree of credence to my theories.

Why does it, you ask? Quite simply; I was controlling something with my chakra easily because the chakras were similar, or quite possibly the same in this case.

I scanned the area for intruders, my young body now feeling tired due to the long walk. While I sat there listening I experimented with my chakra, trying to change its frequency and color.

This'd be easier if I had some more elemental manipulation training I mused.

I idly used the Rasengan, getting up and walking a few paces out in case something went horribly wrong. I then attempted to change the ball into a fiery ball; it worked, to some extent.

After bursting into flame, the ball fizzled out of control and existence in under two seconds, not really useful. Still, wind and fire should be the easiest elements to incorporate into the Rasengan. Maybe I should look into another form of energy, combustion is covered by fire, and electricity by lightning.

Energy is expressed in fire as heat, and I'm not an expert on electricity, so, maybe kinetic energy?

Manipulating kinetics is a little far-fetched, another term for it would be psychokinesis. But if we think about the Naruto verse a different way than I have been, it's not so far out there; I myself am pyro-kinetic.

Somehow this method of looking at chakra as mystical superpowers doesn't appeal to me, I mean, really? I'd rather think of it more like a fantasy RPG, with chakra replacing mana, and hand-seals taking the place of incantations.

But, rather than binding myself to some preconceived notion, it's critical to analyze my limited resources for the answer.

I once again concentrated on perceiving enemies, this time my thoughts taking another bent.

Both Madara and Izuna had the Mangekyou, that's established, but how did they get it? Think about it. Madara's best friend was Hashirama, but Hashirama was still very much alive at the time the time Madara got his.

So then, it follows that there must be some way to awaken the Mangekyou without seeing your best friend die, or killing him. But what could this method be?

Unless it applies to lovers as well, Madara and Izuna could have killed their wives just to get the Mangekyou. That kind of makes sense, I mean, the process for getting the Mangekyou isn't some mystical and unexplained circumstance that's just 'I kill my best friend, I get Mangekyou.'

That's ridiculous, there has to be a reason for it, some kind of change in chakra due to the event that triggers the eyes. If that's the case, then manipulating chakra to become as such should be possible. Another route for Madara and Izuna, clearly.

Of course, all my theories are based on the impression that man can change his chakra at will, to an extent at least. This is a proven fact, as elemental jutsu demonstrate.

Problem being, learning all the elements is a task that only very few accomplish, to develop whole new techniques and elements, you'd need all the time i… in the world.

I looked at Orochimaru's sleeping figure calmly, contemplatively, all the immortal time in the world. I slowly looked at my watch.

I scanned the area once more, turning off my Sharingan once I was finished.

I shook Kaede awake, "Your watch is up."

She nodded quickly, getting up with the least sound possible as I turned in to sleep.

And so, with a serene expression of quiet wonder, I slept until the morning.

One dreamless night later, our little group was ready to move on to Mitsuhide-san's place.

My hair seamlessly fell into place as I got up, slightly groggy.

"Good morning, Mitsuhide-san, Akira-san, Hiashi-san, Kaede-san, Orochimaru-sensei." I turned to each in logical order as I spoke.

"Good morning to you as well Nanashi-kun, sleep well?" From the rest I got simple nods, but Mitsuhide was as eager a conversationalist as ever.

"Of course, it'd be entirely useless to have a sleepless night, so I don't have them."

Mitsuhide cracked a grin at that, "Does everything you do have a use?"

"I should hope so; even recreation is done because of its perceived usefulness."

Mitsuhide gave a large, single, nod in response, making the 'Ah' motion with his mouth as he did so.

"So, do you think we'll reach your home today?"

"Today, no, tonight, perhaps, we'll see if some vagrants make their move."

"So we shall," I gave him an easy grin that would surely reassure anyone.

"So, Kaede-san," I turned to my female teammate, "What's your ideal specialization?" I've always loved little questions like this, by far the easiest method of socializing.

"As a ninja? I'd like to be fast and slippery, non-lethal endings to combat sound good."

"I see, so something like a hit-and-run sleep-genjutsu specialist? Or a super-precise combat medic I suppose."

She smiled, "Yes, I suppose that's about right, wouldn't want you bleeding out would we?"

"If I die, I shall not be unhappy, for I shall see what lies over that horizon, yet, I think living is a little more useful." I made the 'live long and prosper' gesture with my right hand, blocking the sun with my palm as I gazed at the sky through the V.

I smirked; having good eyes really was superb.

"Anyway," I broke myself from my reverie, "I could lend you some texts on genjutsu, or personally teach you a bit."

"Yes, you do know some, don't you?"

"But of course, with these eyes it'd be a shame to not know genjutsu."

She took a slightly cross expression and poise, as if disliking my mention of the famed Uchiha doujutsu, "You do know no Kage, ever, has had a doujutsu, right?"

Her eyes widened at that tidbit, so easy.

"Well, that's true, but why would you tell me something like that, admitting my superiority already?"

"You are not superior." I stated calmly, "However, you do possess a talent I cannot hope to achieve."

"Oh, even with the copy wheel?"

"Yes, everyone is unique Kaede-san, everyone is different, and, personally, I like it that way, how boring would things be if everyone were the same?"

"Pretty dull," She admitted.

"And so, in this life, we seek out those unique persons who complement or correct our own, to the cunning, go the cunning, to the wise go the simple, and on and on it goes."

"How unsurprisingly deep of you, Nanashi-san, sometimes I forget you're younger than me."

"Age is of little consequence, there are those who at eighty can best a twenty-year old talent."

Just look at Kakuzu and Madara.

"So, forgotten youngling; how's your elemental manipulation?"

"I am not yet able to use anything besides fire."

She made a face.

"Orochimaru-sensei is a good teacher; he will teach you when you are ready." If a side-effect of this statement that is favorable to me comes of the fact that Sensei can hear us? Well, I won't complain.

"I suppose."

"For now," I unsealed an introductory genjutsu book, "Don't damage it, I'd hate to have to pay Father for the cost of a book."

"Or course, thank you." She took it almost reverently, turning to page one eagerly. I hope she enjoys it.

I sighed, slapping a mosquito that had landed on me to death.

Now to try my own thing, chakra strings. Not really my own thing, but no one else here is practicing them, so it counts.

I envisioned a chakra string coming out from my finger, and focused.

A blue thread shot out, attaching to the ground. Strange, why would it work on my first try?

Frowning, I made chakra strings shoot out of my other fingers, equally easy. What had I done to make this so easy?

Could it be related to the Rasengan? That's all I could think of, after-all; that was the only other thing I'd really done with pure shape manipulation.

Well, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

I experimented with the strings, changing their length and direction at whim. I can see now why there are puppeteers, the feeling of something moving at naught but your will is truly a pleasant one.

"You didn't tell me you had such a skill, Nanashi-kun." Orochimaru said, he question wasn't articulated, but the implication was there.

"I didn't know I had it either, I knew about chakra strings, but to be honest, this is the first time I've tried."

"Oh? How curious."

Somehow, I think Orochimaru doesn't like not knowing stuff. That's why he pursues knowledge, he _hates _not knowing things, that's why his dream is something impossible like knowing every single jutsu in the world; he can't stand not knowing.

"Yes, I suppose I'll have to think of a practical application for them."

"Oh, such tricks have many uses," He smiled thinly, a string coming from his own finger.

"I see, I look forward to whatever tidbit you deign to bestow upon me," I said, careful to keep every single ounce of mocking out of my voice.

We continued our march, wary for enemies, yet fairly unconcerned.

My thoughts again took a twist, if my theories were correct, then anyone should be able to use the Kaguya's bone release? I think not.

Perhaps certain chakra signatures and frequencies are impossible to replicate without the 'talent'. I know for a fact that some so called 'blood-lines' are no such thing. So, for myself, those that are impossible to replicate without cells or DNA are kekkei genkai, those which can be are just genetic talents.

The Sharingan and Byakugan are surely true blood-lines, as for the Rinnegan… I can't say; I'm not aware of how Nagato awakened it.

Now, to explain what a genetic talent would be; something like the Yamanaka's mind techniques, it's clearly a jutsu, just one that the Yamanaka are predisposed to, to some varying degree.

It is therefore my stated opinion that one does not _have _to be a Yamanaka to learn mind delving. It's just… there's no way they would even attempt to teach them to an outsider.

As for Kushina's chakra chains? Pshaaa! Anyone with enough chakra and shape manipulation can do that. The very idea that one has to be Uzumaki to use chakra constructs is nothing short of ludicrous. Not that just anybody could reach her level of skill with them.

I activated my Sharingan, scanning for… there!

"Hey Sensei, why do we always keep our kunai clean?" Translation: possible hostiles sighted.

"So that they don't get rusty." Translation: Aware, Prepared.

Hiashi tensed slightly, covering a faux yawn with his left hand while his right unbuckled his kunai holster.

Kaede narrowed her eyes, her lithe hands twitching for her shuriken, but she withheld herself.

"Mitsuhide-san, do be careful if we run into a little trouble, I'd hate to see you die," For some reason, Orochimaru didn't alert the client, so I did it for him.

"Oh, I'll be fine."

I slipped my hands inside my jacket, forming hand-seals inside it, away from prying eyes.

"Fire!" A cry resounded through the forest we were bordering on one side.

Arrows, around twenty, came barreling towards us. Hironaka pulled Mitsuhide off his horse, forcing him to lie on the ground. Akira made do himself, drawing a katana as he jumped down.

"Hit 'em with another volley you females!"

A garbled chorus of thankfully indistinguishable voices greeted his statement, and another volley came.

"Let's go get loot!" The bandits jumped forward, the leader first among them. He was a perfect candidate for 'brute thug'; he had a large muscled appearance, being bald with several nasty scars.

I smiled psychotically, "Shall I kill them, Sensei?" I gave myself the most insane expression I could manage, using a high-pitched voice of eager anticipation.

"Yes," He gave his own grin, this one bloodthirsty, and truly heart-felt.

"Katon: Great Fireball!" I screamed at them, the orange ball of fiery death shooting out from my mouth in all its blazing fury.

I only caught a couple of them, the bandits being far enough out to react in time, but my crazy laughter did more to shake them than fifteen more deaths would have.

I scrambled over one of the burnt corpses, cackling all the while, "Two little birdies down, forty little birdies to go!"

"Can I eat it?" I asked, looking to Orochimaru as I tilted my head to the side. I lifted a charred piece of roast bandit as I did so, for extra effect.

"I'm sure we can find someone better for you to eat." He smiled indulgently.

"M-monster!" The leader finally cried, running for all he was worth to the forest.

Once the bandits were gone I broke down in laughter, "Oh the looks on their faces!" I do love a good joke, but really, I should get this burn treated, that roast bandit was still fresh out of the oven.

Orochimaru cracked a small grin, his own sense of humor still existent, even as the rest of the group looked on disbelievingly.

"Thanks for playing along Sensei, couldn't have done it without you."

"It was certainly a unique way of driving them off," He sighed, "Still, it'd have been better if we killed them."

I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly, "I guess, sorry."

Kaede finally burst out of her stupor, "You just killed a man!"

"Two, actually," I replied, deflecting the question.

"That's not the point! How can you be so nonchalant about it?!"

"What was I supposed to do, break down and cry for hours, brood over it? I came to terms with killing as soon as I figured out my name was 'Uchiha'." I spat, losing my calm for quite possibly the first time since I had come here, maybe killing had more effect than I thought.

I took a deep breath, "Hironaka-san, I apologize for losing my temper, it was uncalled for." I gave a polite Japanese bow, signifying my desire for forgiveness.

She blew out her own breath, clearly thinking the past few minutes over as she did so, "I forgive you."

I rose, rubbing my back in an exaggerated fashion.

"Idiot," She cuffed me lightly over the head.

So sweet, but it's enough to make you smile, even when you just had your first kill.

**Authors Note: So, more illustrious chakra contemplations, a little character development, plus, Nanashi starts to get comfortable with his team.**

**But will it be premature? Only the future will tell, come back later for all new episodes As a Ninja.**

**As for the end bit, why would the bandits run away? Well, I clearly was insane, and something was abnormal about me, nobody has red eyes with spinning commas in them, right? Not to mention the fact that I casually asked about eating them, so I don't think that this scene 'went a little too well'.**

**I welcome those who would shoot down my theories about chakra, just remember, just because Nanashi thinks or says something, doesn't make it objective truth.**

**Anyway, please review.**

Your new favorite author,

Iamwhononofyouare


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Uchiha clan… yet, or **_**Naruto, **_**or Naruto the character, for now. **

**Believe it or not, it's Chapter 12.**

The rest of our journey was uneventful, and we saw Mitsuhide to his mansion before midnight.

Kaede was still slightly wary of me, while Hiashi was utterly the same as always. Orochimaru, however, seemed somewhat pleased about the whole affair; as if happy I had killed. Knowing him, that's probably the reason, actually.

I related my newest ideas, in part, to my pale sensei as we returned the day after.

As usual, he wore a thin poker grin during the entire breath-hogging experience. Apparently, ground-breaking never-before-heard ideas about how chakra worked were second place to tree hopping.

Not that I'm surprised, my hypotheses are totally unproven, the ramblings of a man from another world.

As for what I left out; I wasn't exactly going to tell him about the future, so mentioning Danzo's arm was not included in the first edition. Izuna and Madara were also no-no's, as no one spoke about either, most Uchiha weren't even aware of that terrible power called 'Mangekyou'.

Of course, limited to talking and running I was not, so I saw fit to practice my chakra strings, even going so far as to swing like a monkey on vines a couple times.

Our break-neck pace quickly exhausted the little ones in our little shinobi outfit, Orochimaru, of course, wasn't even winded. So we bedded down for the night, putting up tents in case of rain.

"Hiashi-kun, first watch, Kaede-kun, second, Nanashi-kun, you're third, I don't want any missteps from any of you." Orochimaru assigned us without delay to our duties, opting to instruct us in some ninja fare. The stuff was actually pretty good, glad I memorized the recipe.

I got in my tent, falling asleep with the ease of constant practice, or maybe it's because I'm always tired that it's so easy? No matter…

**XXX**

My watch came all too soon, but I refused to be crabby about it. Instead I got up, stoking the failing camp-fire to keep it alive, nights could get fairly chilly.

The most exciting thing was a wild-cat; panther was the closest thing I could think of, wandering a little close to our camp. A couple warning kunai were enough to teach the intelligent beast to seek other prey.

Killing it would have been useless, the meat was no good.

I woke Orochimaru up on schedule, or I would have, if he wasn't already buckling on his gear when I moved to. I guess that's a jonin for you, internal clock and everything. I yawned, turning in to get whatever rest I could before dawn.

We returned to Konoha in the morning, Orochimaru-sensei dismissing us as he went to mission debrief.

I now had the rest of the day to myself, but I had not had lunch. Well, meals are social affairs, right? Time to find an eat-mate.

I found Minato in his usual spot, his brow bent in concentration as he no doubt made efforts to mold his chakra into something visible. Of course, making assumptions is a sure way to be dead wrong, so I didn't place any great reliance on my deduction.

"Minato!" I called, forgoing my usual formality.

"Nanashi? When'd you get back?"

"Just now, anyway, want to grab a bite, or is your memory so bad you have got to stay here until you finish whatever?"

"You buying?"

"Of course, why would I make a poor boy like you buy?"

"Because you're an awful person?"

"I'm not awful, come on, let's get some meat on those girly bones." Really, Minato is a fun guy, as long as you relax and let it flow.

He frowned at the reminder of just _how_ effeminate he looked, but made no comment.

We sought out a nice little no-name place and ordered our respective meals.

"So, what's new with you?"

"Jiraiya-sensei recently published a book, so I've been reading it; as well as working on my ninja skills, of course."

A book from the so called Ero-sennin? Wouldn't you be a little young… oh, utterly gutsy ninja, huh? Well, I won't claim to have read it.

"Huh, is it any good?"

"It's interesting, inspiring even."

"Cool. How's your team?"

"They're alright, nothing to write home about, nice though, luckily bullies are a thing of the very long past." He grinned, passing off the fact that he had indeed been bullied in this life with a chuckle.

"Well, with a little genius like you, it's no surprise that bullies would stay away from your manly prowess." I smirked, my not-so-pleasant side coming out once more.

"Would you stop going on about how wimpy I look!?" He seemed so very offended I almost felt bad, almost.

"When a little clan-punk like me can look this good and do over a hundred push-ups… I think I have some say on the matter."

"You're too young to be attractive."

"You're too old to be cute, I look reliable."

"Reliable huh? You're probably a regular thug under that fanned out jacket."

"As long as it stays under the jacket, you'll never know." I broke off the banter with my witty reply.

"But if I take the jacket off, you're thuggish nature will be revealed." Persistent, but you missed the pitfall.

"But I'm only thuggish under this fanned out jacket, thus, if it comes off, no one will ever be able to point and say, 'Thug!'"

He stopped bringing his food to his mouth for a second while he thought that over, playing back the conversation in his head.

"You got me," He finally admitted in defeat.

"That's what I like about you Minato, always a good loser and a good sport."

"Thanks I guess."

"No problem," I went back to eating my rather delicious meal.

I paid the bill as we left quietly.

I readjusted my jacket as we walked out the business door, "So, mind telling me what you were working on?"

"When you dropped on me? Shape manipulation."

"Fun stuff, I'm not much of a teacher though, and you don't exactly have the ability to do it by sight."

"So you know it already?"

"What do you think I am, you?"

"Shut up, give me a tip; come on."

"Ok, chakra is yours to control, you just have to tell it who's boss," I answered, provoking an exasperated sigh from the blonde.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll figure it out." I jumped onto the nearest high roof, using my chakra strings to make some use out of my arm strength. Heh, impressing former classmates is one way to feel good about myself.

Ah, Minato, so good to have a friend I can rely on, I'm just looking forward to the day he becomes something for real.

I looked at the ground under my floating figure, noting that one of the people there was very… red. I grinned, today was the day of reacquainting eh?

I did several flips, slowing my momentum as I landed in front of my hot-tempered class-mate.

"Fancy meeting you here, Uzumaki-san." I grinned as I got up from my crouch.

Kushina was not impressed, if her face was anything to go by.

"I'm going to say this once, Uchiha, get out of my way, dattebane!"

"But of course," I jumped over her head, landing behind her.

"Is this better, Uzumaki-san?"

My only reply was a growl and a tightened jaw. Obviously this is a bad day for her, that's bad; she's always been the life of the party.

"Would talking help?" I asked softly.

"No, and certainly not talking to you."

"Well, I do enjoy bugging you, but it seems you really are preoccupied, I apologize for any offense I may have wrought." I left her there, jumping away on roof-tops to my own home.

"Mother, I have returned from my mission." I straightened myself out, the overpowering aura of the Uchiha compound clicking me back into my formal mode.

"Nanashi! You're back, tell me everything." She smiled at me, her black hair looking slightly wild.

"Not much to say, the client was a nice man, we encountered bandits; I vanquished two."

"I see; any issues there?"

"To be honest? I lost my temper once immediately after, otherwise no, Father will of course make his own decision."

"Yes, your Father always was one to decide for himself, I'm sure he'll be proud."

"You don't need to reassure me, if Father is proud, he is proud, if he is not, what is it to me?"

"Go get cleaned up Son, I'll have food ready when you're done."

I felt a pang of guilt, and did not see fit to tell her that I had eaten; I could stuff in some more anyway. Of course, if I had no appetite it'd look bad, as if my stomach was unsettled by killing. Unacceptable, gut, I command you to digest my lunch!

I felt a churning in my stomach, no way on earth. Luckily, I don't know if I'm even on earth.

Chakra is a strange thing, I have decided, the ability to augment any bodily process is one strange power. Not to mention all the other varieties.

I finished my bath, seeing no reason to prolong it beyond the requisite ten minutes. I put on clean clothes, the Uchiwa once again decorating my back. What is the Uchiwa you ask? Only the Uchiha's famous clan symbol.

I left my room refreshed, and the smell of Sukiyaki greeted my nostrils, ah, Mother really is very good to me. I walked over to the table, sitting in seiza once again; I found tea waiting for me, so I helped myself to a cup, careful not to spill.

Mother brought out my steaming meal in short order, truly an efficient cook.

"Have you already eaten?" I asked politely.

"Yes."

"Then I'll dig in," I picked up my chopsticks, "Thank you very much."

I ate my food, and to my delight I was able to fit the entire serving in. Fortunately, this wasn't some kind of awkward scene from a movie, so Mother didn't bring seconds out.

"What has Fugaku-nii been doing?"

"Training, learning, getting prouder," She smiled wistfully.

"I hope he doesn't become arrogant." I said, frowning.

"You're hilarious; you act like the older brother half the time."

"Well, I've never really had a younger brother before." My previous younger brother, and didn't that feel crazy, he'd be what, 23 now? Didn't speak a word in his life, not that it made him less of a person.

So, with my technical age superiority, is it any wonder I'd act like an older brother sometimes?

Maybe it is; I can't read minds though.

Reading minds huh? Even the Mangekyou can't do such a ridiculous thing.

"Well, I'll have to curb his pride, Mother; it won't do him any good."

"And how exactly will you do that?"

I grimaced, showing him that I'm better would just make him lash out at other people, so that's a no-no.

"Perhaps love will mellow him."

"So you're going to play matchmaker?" She asked seriously.

"True, but this can't go on; however, I'm not really a psychologist."

"If it really worries you, tell him honestly."

"Then I'll do that, where will I find him?"

"Now? Probably the police station."

"Thank you."

I got up, heading over to where I knew the police station to be. I'd have to forgo formalities; they made everything so much less genuine in people's heads, not that I agree with that assessment.

With my Uchiha garb, no one gave me any trouble.

Inside the station, all was bustle and activity, with brown-haired Uchiha, Sharingan Uchiha, and even blonde Uchiha going about their business of keeping the village running smoothly, truly, lawlessness is chaos. And, the very reason for police, laws without enforcement are powerless.

I walked up to a friendly looking female desk officer, "I'm looking for my Honored Father's office."

"Name?"

"Uchiha Nanashi."

"Oh, the second son, down the hall, door at the very end."

So, the clan head's office is the width of two rooms plus a hallway? How nice.

"Thank you." I walked down, the hall, knocking politely.

"Come in."

"Father," I turned and saw Fugaku poring over some document, "Nii-san."

"Why have you come here Nanashi?" Father asked, not unkindly, rather, I've never been here before. Therefore, his surprise is not unnatural.

"I'll make this quick." I drew in a breath, "Fugaku-nii," He looked up, "Pride and arrogance have been the downfall of many peoples, nations, and clans," I said pointedly, "Therefore, your continued growth in such matters will not be overlooked. Not despite, but rather because of the fact that you are heir, and my older brother, I cannot let such attitude persist unchecked."

"In essence, it is my heartfelt wish for you to be successful, and pride is one vice a shinobi cannot afford, thank you. Good-day, Father, Brother, I hope to see you at supper." I bowed and left, hoping that whatever altercation between my Father and Fugaku occurred would be for the best.

I made my way over to the Uchiha training ground that I'd been using for some time now, wanting to test something out.

I formed a Rasengan in my hand, inspecting my chakra creation with the famed Sharingan. I threw it into the air, watching as it dissolved past a certain distance, perhaps because I was no longer controlling it, only watching?

That's for later, for now I want to test if making the Rasengan smaller is feasible. In Naruto, the bumbling fool that the manga is named after always thinks 'bigger is better', thus the ever increasing size of his techniques. However, I am no jinchuriki, nor am I so unsubtle.

Now, with my layer method, it should be simple to simply leave out a quantity of the outer layers, leaving me with say, five. That'd reduce the diameter a little, hence, lower chakra consumption. I formed my proposed modification with minimal trouble. I let it dispel.

Now four, I formed the four layer Rasengan cautiously, I was approaching the bare minimum now. The now two-inch sphere rotated easily in my hand, the tiny, bony thing now able to close around the blue ball of death.

I ran to the nearest pole, silently inserting the Rasengan into its wooden frame. With satisfaction I noted that the power was no less, only the quantity of destruction was affected.

I now worked on thinning the layers a little, reducing the diameter a little, unfortunately, past a certain point, the layers broke upon contact with solids.

A little over an eighth was the smallest I could go without risking unreliability; even then, it was uncertain if it could pierce dense substances like steel.

Nevertheless, this experiment was a success, time to move on.

I formed a standard Rasengan, throwing it into the sky. I focused on it, remembering the feeling of it in my hand, trying to get it to stay that way. Unfortunately, it didn't work, it seemed thrown Rasengan were out of the equation for now.

It was just a passing fancy anyway… what if I kept it connected to me, would it work then? This could not go untested! I formed a Rasengan in my left hand, attaching a chakra string to it with my right.

The length of a chakra string was subject to change, based on the wishes of the user. This is why skilled puppeteers barely ever moved their fingers, they just changed the lengths.

Now, theoretically, if the Rasengan is attached to me through a solid chakra string, I should be able to control it. I gave my string plenty of extra slack, throwing my ball forward.

I could feel it so clearly! I kept that calm, confident feeling of having the Rasengan in my hand, projecting my commands through the string.

The ball continued on its path until ramming into a tree, gravity having no noticeable effect on solid chakra. This is why so many ninja ignore muscles if they specialize in ninjutsu, chakra has no weight.

I grinned, this was a crutch to be sure, but it was a bloody good one. Now for the hard part, reentry.

I threw out another chakra-connected sphere, this time only letting it go a certain distance before trying to pull it back with my chakra string. Trying being the key word, the stubborn ball didn't take kindly to being recalled, so it snapped my string, and therefore dissolved.

I wasn't exactly happy about that, so this time I created four strings, one from each finger.

Lengthening each one at the same rate, and then shortening at the same rate, was a challenge. One I did not beat.

Well, practice, practice, practice. Ruefully, I realized I was low on chakra, so I returned home.

I read until supper time, enjoying the feeling of my chakra replenishing while also wondering where it came from. Of course, I knew that each cell produced chakra, with the mind generating spiritual chakra for genjutsu and similar. That didn't eliminate my questions as to how it worked, but I didn't go into it much, I've always been a 'if it works, who cares?' kind of guy, so wondering about _everything _is out of the equation.

On a different note, my current book was on D-rank and C-rank genjutsu, basically as low as conventionally 'effective' genjutsu were ranked. This is how it is for skills, support techniques get low ranks, this is why the academy three are considered E-rank, non-lethal and easy to learn.

Supper promised to be awkward, so with a certain, healthy, trepidation I sat in my spot, Fugaku gazing at me impassively.

Mother, despite being out of the loop, was certainly able to glean the tense atmosphere.

I was the first to speak beyond the standard 'Itadakimasu', "Father, it seems good to me to inform you that I had my first kill."

"How was it?"

"Better than I thought it might be." Not that anyone really knew what I thought; even I was surprised by myself.

"I see." He took another bite, "You were very bold today," He shifted the topic, causing me to nod, "I spoke with your brother, I think you two will come to an understanding."

I glance over at Fugaku-nii, noticing his faintly scowling expression, didn't go over well then.

"I ask for no forgiveness, but I pray you thought about it earnestly." I said to him sincerely.

"I thought about it, your concern is merited, but your boldness shameful."

I inhaled, "I make no move to justify my actions, beyond the fact that they were heartfelt."

"I see, such a vice is not easily corrected," Here he smiled, "But I hope you'll be there to help."

I smiled back, welcoming the fact that the gap between us was shortening.

"I'd be happy to, after all, where would you be without me?" I grinned, relishing the smiles that went around the table, ah; it is good to have a loving family.

**XXX**

In the morning it was business as usual, waking and eating, then heading to the training grounds.

Orochimaru was early today it seemed; if the fact that he was already there was anything to go by.

I walked over, brimming with wariness; I wouldn't be surprised if Orochimaru pulled something on a day like this. I scanned the area with my naked eye, seeing nothing of note.

"Good morning Sensei."

"Good morning, Nanashi-kun," He replied, full of boredom.

"What's on the agenda?"

"Oh I don't know, killing your teammates?"

"No." I doubted he was serious, and even if he was, there was no way I'd comply.

"Oh, then maybe I should kill you?"

"I am ready, do as you will." I stared defiantly at him.

"Stubbornness and accepting death? Disappointing."

"And you'd rather that I kill a clan heir and betray the famed will of fire? I think not."

"Well, I suppose either way, your length of life wouldn't be much different."

"Exactly, why kill two people to live a few more minutes?"

"Oh, but who knows what you could do with so much time, maybe even kill me."

"The chances are low, though not non-existent."

He frowned slightly, "I didn't take you for one to overestimate yourself."

"I didn't take you for one to trust face value." I smirked back.

He threw a kunai past me, "Keeping secrets?" His eyes narrowed, "Good."

Yes, if anyone were to get the weird award, it'd be either him or me.

"But come, it seems we have company."

I looked over in the indicated direction, noticing Hiashi and Hironaka.

"Today, little genin, we have the very special task of teaching Konoha's future a lesson."

Well, that's a little too broad for me to draw any sort of conclusion.

"Quite simply, we'll be setting up traps for the Academy." He paused, making an expression as if he had swallowed half a lemon at once, "Non-lethal."

The sincere regret as he said that was so spectacular that even morally superb individuals would be moved. Such is the maddening, and utterly ridiculous, charisma of Orochimaru, no last name. For an orphan, he really has come far.

**3 Months Later**

Setting traps had been a nearly every-day exercise, forcing us to improve in the area. Of course, adapting non-lethal to lethal was gratifyingly easy, so Orochimaru had recovered his lost spirits as he had explained as much.

I saw no reason to stagnate, so I practiced my chakra control and Rasengan nearly every day. In addition, my genjutsu repertoire increased.

Today marked the day of the grand experiment: flat Rasengan. Curiously, this ruined the name, so I'd have to think of something. Well, first comes the technique itself.

I molded my chakra, eliminating the way the Rasengan spun to make a sphere, instead changing it to a circle.

On course, it was much harder to control, the chakra disliking the planar shape, since it could keep closer together in a sphere. This is why I had focused on chakra control, with my chakra virtually completely obedient, it'd be possible to make it do close to anything in standard form.

With intense concentration, it was possible to get it to work for a few seconds; obviously, this needed a great deal of work.

**Almost 1 Year Later**

I narrowed my eyes, looking at the paper in my hands warily. Chunin was a scary thing, a needed thing, Orochimaru-sensei had promised to take me as an apprentice if I won.

The question remained, could I? I glanced over at my two teammates; it seemed Kaede was confident at least.

Hiashi was professionally hard to read, but I could spot the subtle signs of excitement, truly, it had been a while since we graduated.

Now I saw kids of my level of power back then as novices, academy legends, battlefield fodder.

Fugaku-nii had already made jonin, falling behind any farther was not an option.

I looked at my paper again, reading the fine print carefully. It seemed joint exams were not a thing, not really a massive surprise. I signed quickly, seeing no reason to drag things out beyond what was necessary.

Kaede and Hiashi had already handed theirs in, so Orochimaru-sensei clapped his hands, "Excellent, I really do hope you win, after all, I can't have you lose to that fool Jiraiya's brats."

Ah, Minato, it seems this meeting will be of conflict.

"Of course, they're nothing special beyond Minato-kun." I answered with bravado.

"The little orphan genius, hmm," He looked pensive.

"Don't kill him," He decided.

I nodded, Orochimaru handed out kill orders all the time when they were allowed, he also made it very clear who he wanted alive. I suspect the bandits we've brought to 'a secure facility' would have been much better off dead.

In two weeks, we'd be pitted against Konoha's finest genin, and I looked forward to it.

It'd be a real chance to show off.

Unfortunately, I hadn't tasted defeat at anyone's, excluding Orochimaru's, in a very long time, rather ego boosting, despite my best mental efforts. So, the chance to get beaten by my peers was welcome.

If worst came to worst, I could just use my planar Rasengan, the Cutting Circle, to end them. Of course, killing comrades wasn't the best way to win favor, so that would be the very last resort.

Of course, it was useful as a weak defensive technique against thrown weapons. Weak because it had the annoying tendency to get disrupted when hit on the broad-side. Still, with an angle, it sent kunai, shuriken, and senbon flying away in spirals.

Of course, the chakra consumption for a full-body defense one was a little prohibitive.

"So, Kaede-san, how do you feel about this exam?"

"I feel ready to kick some butt!"

"No but's, and language."

She scowled at me, disliking my intense hatred for even mildly strong language. Not that it surprised her; I'd been this way ever since one was said in front of me here.

"Hiashi," I prompted.

"Father will be pleased if I win, I hope to conquer you out there, Nanashi."

"But of course, with the rivalry between our clans it'd be amazing if you didn't want to defeat me."

"With even normal levels of kiddie 'I want to win' it'd be natural." Kaede cut in dryly.

"I bow in the face of your overweening wisdom." I replied, mockingly serious.

"So, Sensei, until then, what are we doing?"

"Do choose for yourself, I'm afraid I'm a busy man, training any of you would cost far too much time."

"I see, something chakra intensive then?"

"I don't want to be disturbed." He replied flatly.

"Ah, well, I'm sure Father will be pleased to teach me something."

"I'm sure he will, shoo little leaflets." So saying, Orochimaru leapt up and away, leaving us to our own devices.

It seems my position as conversationalist isn't getting much respect today, why, without me this ragtag group would fall apart at the seams. I'm the thread you know.

I'm sure Minato would completely break down if I stopped buying him free meals too. On that note, let's go see the ever less effeminate blonde.

I leapt across Konoha's rooftops until I saw Minato, training as always. Really, that's why we both like each other, we're both diligent geniuses.

"Minato! Free food, your pick."

I knew he wouldn't take advantage of me; he was always nice that way.

I frowned, all this eating out was distinctly inappropriate for a penny-pincher like me. It seemed I would have to learn to cook. I suppose mother wouldn't mind teaching me, but really, I'm rather hesitant to ask her.

That's all for after the chunin exams, of course. Still, I shoved it away into a moderately accessible portion of my mind.

We sat down at some no-name noodle spot, there weren't really franchises in the Naruto-verse, and ordered. I wasn't feeling all that daring, so I got something I had eaten here before without negative effect.

"So, Jiraiya-sama nominated your team." It was not a question, Orochimaru wouldn't be wrong about this kind of thing.

"Yes, we'll be sure to win."

"I look forward to seeing your efforts."

"Confident, I see."

"Well, Minato, you and Hiashi-san are the best competition I can think of, and I know I can beat both of you, why should I not be confident?"

He made a face, "Don't think that I've shown you everything I've got."

"Should I then think you'll show it to me?"

"I will be Hokage, so defeating you is a no-brainer."

"You will be Hokage, but lose to me, you shall."

We stared into each other's eyes, each of us willing the other to back down. But it was not to be, with the rival based friendships common in Konoha, this was no surprise. Rather, what was surprising was that we had a friendship based rivalry.

I smirked, activating my Sharingan and simultaneously casting a black screen genjutsu. In the half-second it took for him to dispel it, I was already gone.

I ran across what was affectionately known as 'the ninja's road' and returned to the Uchiha compound.

With Nii-san as a jonin, Father let him take care of a good portion of the work, allowing the Uchiha patriarch to come home early.

"I'm home." I stated as I left my sandals at the door.

"Son, what brings you home so soon?"

"Orochimaru-sensei nominated us for the chunin exams; he told us today and then ran off."

Yuu frowned slightly, "Somewhat irresponsible, but I suppose it's alright, I've been meaning to teach you something for a while now."

"I look forward to it."

"I'm sure you do, come now, we have plenty of time."

I followed Father out to the Uchiha training grounds; he led me to the same old spot once more.

He handed me a chakra paper, "I assume you know what to do."

I nodded, channeling chakra into the paper, for a little bit nothing happened, then the paper began to curl at the edges, turning black as it did so. I frowned, was the curling because of a lightning affinity, or just because the paper was starting to burn?

"I suspected as much." I looked at him questioningly.

"If you had fire affinity," He took out another paper, instantly it burst into flame all over.

"So I have a tiny affinity?"

"No, your chakra is just used to being raw, your natural bent is fire, and perhaps lightning, but you've used so much raw chakra it's mellowed out."

Basically, I have a trained affinity for pure chakra? I didn't even know that was possible.

"So that means fire won't be much easier than water?"

"Unfortunately, yes. How you managed it, I don't know, but it has happened before."

"This is somehow related to my Sharingan, isn't it?"

"Yes, you've seen fire chakra, and other people's chakra, and you somehow made your chakra be neither by looking at both."

That's really hard to understand, but theoretically, I've seen fire chakra, and then when it came to using raw chakra I ran away from looking like that, because it's too similar. In the same way, I ran away from using someone else's chakra signature. On a side note, this means changing ones chakra is certainly possible.

Unless, of course, this is all an elaborate joke. Which, frankly, I find hard to believe, Father is the dead serious type.

"So, I have really down to nothing chakra?" I would say down to earth, but that's an element, incredibly easy to misunderstand.

"Yes, you've mellowed it out, forging it into something that's not one of the five elements or their sub-elements, it's not complete though."

This makes me perfect for a jack-of-all trades build, since using each of the elements is no harder or easier than the next. Of course, implied is the 'master of none', but with enough work, I can be master of all trades, all I need is time.

"Well, this has certainly been interesting, anything else?" It's all rather strange though.

"Nanashi, you need to choose, choose if you want to change back, or continue."

I thought about it, "Continue." I'm a dude, taking a few risks is the only way to win, right? What exactly I'm winning, I don't know, but someday I will.

Father nodded, acknowledging my decision.

"And now to the main event, while suppressed your chakra still actually wants to become more like fire."

I gaped, however inelegant I may have been, so this means nothing? Just that my affinity is not immediately apparent? Somehow, I get the impression Father purposely manipulated my thoughts into where they went.

Well, not totally, I doubt he's played an RPG in his life.

Basically, my affinity is hidden under now instinctive suppression, but other than the fact that using other elements will be a little easier perhaps, I see no real change. May my imagination forever become wiser.

I made a face, causing the older man to grin a bit.

"So if this was one big prank, what were you really going to teach me?"

"This," He sped through hand-seals, "Katon: Firewall!" He spat out a dense ball of fire chakra, upon hitting the ground it spread out into a towering wall of flames.

"It costs a lot of chakra, so it's not something you use in every battle, of course this technique has lots of uses," He then went on to explain how it worked, showing me the proper hand-seals.

For this jutsu, you spat out fire chakra in a dense ball, and wouldn't that be useful at mid-range, and used the dispersion from the impact to help spread the fire out. Of course, this was a decently versatile and incredibly hot technique, so it came with a 'use wisely' stamped on it.

Father wasn't kidding about the chakra cost either; even using it twice was enough to put me on the very edge of chakra exhaustion.

So, it fully deserved its A-rank, if I were to be asked.

Since I couldn't practice more without recovering, we headed back in. As soon as we returned, I lay down for a nap.

Come dinner time I was still asleep, so Mother woke me up.

I checked my mirror, glancing over my appearance carelessly, looking 'good' wasn't what I put time of the day to, but I still didn't like looking like a street-boy. Sorry street-boys. Of course, the fact that my clan would be horrified certainly factored in.

Despite shounen attempts to say otherwise, going against the grain of a clan is not brave. It's stupid. If the rules aren't utterly unacceptable, follow them. I won't go into examples of 'utterly unacceptable' because really, who needs to get explicit?

Dinner was good, as always, but Fugaku-nii looked a little tired.

"How are you holding up?"

"I have infinite respect for Father, running that place is like trying to get Nanashi to stop training."

I took it in stride, "That difficult, huh?"

"Yes, and I'm not kidding, a little relaxation wouldn't kill you."

"If I felt like relaxing, I would. However, the fact remains, I do not relax. So then, what do I feel like?"

"We get it already."

"You know Nii-san, you give up so easily, I worry for when you meet that special girl… she'll already like some other guy, and you'll just walk away." I made a sad face, like one for the end of a sweet tragedy fairy-tale.

"That's ridiculous, I will marry an Uchiha girl; she'll come with me because she has to."

"Oh ho, but love is a powerful thing. If she loves another man, even a clan will not stop her."

"Sometimes I wonder where you get this stuff, I happen to know that your library has no novels."

"You need to get out Nii-san; I just pick this stuff up off the sappy streets."

"And you need to stop making jokes about other people's love life." He advised seriously.

I nodded, conceding the point, "So, how were your chunin exams?"

"Fun, the life and death challenge of meeting opponents who want you gone… nothing can match it."

"You're full of young blood, but so am I, I look forward to beating your record."

"I look forward to your disappointed face."

**XXX**

For every force in one direction, there is an opposite and equal force.

So then, if one can make a leaf float above their hand, they could, by the same principle, hover above the ground.

That's the idea anyway, but my perfectly grounded body has another opinion.

What's the difference between me and a leaf? The answer is simple, air resistance. All I need to do is increase my own air resistance and boom! I'm gliding at the expense of my chakra.

I call it: Flight, Revisited!

Now, WWI airplanes were made with a light frame, and canvas. Clearly, this worked, so I see no reason to not copy the ingenious design.

For canvas, I have paper, since its lighter. Now I was in the process of making the frame.

Fortunately, I was rich enough to buy some tough, light, wood.

Nails were no issue; truly, everything seems so simple it's amazing.

I nailed on the last portion of my makeshift frame. I'd also had the forethought for this portion of the labor, behold! Tacks.

With minimalism I tacked on the paper for the wing. Soon enough the rickety thing was ready, now for the real challenge: Harnessing it to my back.

I took advantage of my whips, wrapping them around the frame and shoulders. It cut a little, but it hurt less than the price for a proper harness.

I bent down my waist, picking up speed with all my shinobi talent.

Once I was satisfied, I lifted my legs.

For one glorious second I was flying, and the next I was on the ground. My wings didn't accompany me, instead they flew on; it seemed the fastenings were insecure.

The wooden construct only went a few feet before its lack of balance caught up to it, causing it to fall lightly on its side. Fortunately, I'd been about as close to the ground as can be, so it was undamaged.

Well, that could have gone better. Too bad I didn't know any solid clone techniques, they be so useful…

Hn. Why hadn't I thought of this before? I took off my jacket, laying it down next to my whips and scrolls, even as my pale body was revealed. It wasn't anything to write home about, thousands of ninja were more imposing.

I slid under my wings again, this time sticking them to my back with oft practiced skill. This would cut down on the weight a little a well.

I repeated my take off run, lifting my legs once more. I instantly began shooting out chakra from my entire downward facing side, in this case my belly and face. Carefully I proceeded, making sure to keep the wings on.

I fell much slower than I would have without the wings, but still alarmingly quickly. I'd flown about three meters, not the worst I suppose.

Still, the chakra cost for this is clearly prohibitive, if my currently grounded self is anything to go by.

Well, I wasn't all that reliant on this working, just a theory test for something I know _can _work. Altogether, rather disappointing, and not very encouraging for the future, but, I'm sure I'll manage.

I picked up my wings after re-clothing myself, taking off towards home after I had done so.

I made the ram seal, frowning as I investigated my rather expended chakra pool; it seemed flight was far away indeed, since I had no idea how to make a jet engine. Chakra's abilities were unlimited, if you had unlimited chakra to work with, but, some things are just not cost effective.

After finishing the rest of my studious day, I retired to bed, thinking on what I'd show off in the chunin exams…

**The End.**

**Just kidding, this is nowhere near the end of this story, unless I pull a twenty yr time-skip.**

**As always, I read your reviews and seriously think about them.**

**ANYONE WHO KNOWS JAPANESE: I don't, so suggested names for my flat Rasengan are being accepted, if I get no good suggestions I'll go with my google translate version or just keep it in English.**

**Again, please review and tell me what you think, I won't hate you even if you say: 'Your story is so ridiculous, please write something new.' Or similar.**

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**As always, Iamwhononofyouare**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I don't even own As a Ninja, since it's a spin-off of another thing I don't own: Naruto.**

**Chapter 13: What does a chunin look like?**

I woke without any complications, all my bodily functions in impeccable order. I got dressed quickly, preparing to eat with all the dignity of the Uchiha's second son.

Well, I shrugged on my jacket, perhaps that was a little to dramatic, but really, drama is the best way to get yourself awake quickly. I glanced in the mirror, combing my growing hair as I did so, was a hair-cut even worth it at this point?

On a side note, I hope I never grow facial hair; shaving takes too much time from a man. On a different side note, I hope I never need braces for my teeth.

I ambled over to where we usually ate, noting without surprise that breakfast was in the air. Everything was done on an unofficial schedule, just the way I liked it.

I sat down in practiced seiza, waiting with genuine patience for my mother to finish preparing whatever delicacy was on the menu. Fugaku-nii slid the door open, wordlessly sitting down opposite me, soon after, Father came in.

Mother brought out our breakfast in no time at all, and we then ate in practiced silence. The fact that food tastes better in company is true, so long as the company is not sour. Since conversation eventually leads to bitterness, very eventually, well, our silence spoke for itself.

As always, I was reading into things like it was going out of style, I dearly hope it's not.

In a week the chunin exams would start, and I had spent my time since more productively than my slight flight fiasco. More specifically, my personal hobbies: chakra control and push-ups. I could now manage a decent number over two-hundred, thanks to my muscle percentage.

Hiashi was probably working on his Jyuuken, maybe even starting on the Kaiten. No doubt Kaede was training overtime on her genjutsu and kunai throwing. Perchance she'd even given in and studied some more on seals.

I finished my meal, thanking Mother for it. After I had put my plate in the sink I wandered out the front door basking in the morning sun.

A cool breeze swept by, the Land of Fire was warm all year round, but winter and fall temperatures were still slightly lower than the rest of the year. Altogether though, the Shodaime's forest was lucky to shed leaves twice in a decade.

Well, standing here like a piece of dead-meat wasn't getting me anywhere.

After reaching my training ground I removed my larger whip from its scroll, my larger frame now able to handle it to a much greater degree.

I swung it out down and around. It was useful against kids and cowards, but brave jonin would easily push past and cut me down, I needed something more… sturdy. With future aspirations to become a light-saber-wielding engine of mass destruction, kenjutsu was the obvious choice.

Of course, Orochimaru was hardly available, and after I became his apprentice - and make no mistake, I would - he'd teach me then.

Predictably, my thoughts turned to spears once again. Truly, kunai had no way of combatting the long thrusts of a proper spear. Of course, proper spears were rather lacking around here, so it seemed our favorite blacksmith needed some business.

I resealed my whip, once again trudging over to the blacksmiths shop. Fortunately, it was very much open.

"What now?" He asked, resigned to my custom requests.

"I need a spear-point made."

"Or do you need a spear?" He asked pointedly.

"Yes, that's right. Do you think it'd be too heavy if it were mostly metal?"

"For you? No idea kid, but the point of a spear is its lack of weight and cheapness."

"I don't suppose you have any 6' 2" poles lying around?"

"No, but I can get one for the right price."

I scowled a little, "Well, you make me the best spear in Konoha, and you'll get plenty of money."

He grinned a little at that, "When do you need it?"

"Six days, max. It'd defeat the point if I didn't have it for the chunin exams."

He mouthed 'ah' but then did a double take, "You're a real ninja?"

"Didn't I mention it before?" I took in his 'no', "Huh. Must have slipped my mind," For other ninja, nobody asks them, must be because I kept my forehead protector in my pocket most of the time.

Still, didn't he know at some point or another? Maybe he doesn't think of new graduates as real ninja, I completely concur.

"Anyway, can you get it done?"

"If I put aside my less pressing tasks, sure, it's five ryo extra though."

"Three."

"Five, kid, I don't take unneeded risks."

"Four; or I find somebody less busy."

"Fine, four, you do know I can just tag those extra ryo to the cost of the spear, you'd never even know a thing."

"I know when I'm getting cheated; besides, you're honest enough of a character." Easy, say 'I trust you', so that they won't betray you as readily.

"Is that all?"

"Yes, thank you, I'll drop in in three days," I walked out, knowing well that he didn't want me hanging around any longer.

Spears are simple in nature, and thus simple in wielding; a necessity, considering my limited time. Still, I couldn't help but wonder if a Naginata would serve me better. No sense worrying about it I suppose.

I went out to the forest, procuring a decently straight sapling for my purpose. I tested the balance, not bad for an un-doctored tree. I experimentally made some simple motions, good enough.

Now for what I really wanted it for. I sealed in into a small scroll, put the scroll away and crossed my arms, utterly leisurely.

I burst into motion; removing the scroll in the same second I channeled chakra into it to open it. My practice spear was pulled out by my right hand, and I took a ready stance. To slow.

This was my major concern, if I sealed it, and I most certainly would, would it take too long to remove due to its long length? As they say, practice makes perfect.

I spent hours practicing spear maneuvers and withdrawals, until I was satisfied. Eventually, I dragged my sweaty body home, hungry for dinner.

I read a ninja book on seeing underneath the underneath while I waited for dinner time, mental preparation was half the game after-all. Nonetheless, supper came soon enough, and I was in no mood to skip.

XXXX

I woke up in my normal position, my pillow distinctly dry. Good, I still didn't drool in my sleep.

My thoughts turned to the blacksmith, there was no way making a spear point would take more than a few hours. Yes, checking in on the third day would work well.

I walked with refinement to the breakfast table, taking a seat with practiced silence.

"Any chance you'll give me a hint?" I asked my brother, ever hopeful, but less than expectant.

"It's different every year."

Well, I didn't guess; still, that qualifies, very shrewd Nii-san.

I'm sure it'll follow the same basic pattern as the one in the manga… so phase one is a psych out test, number two is survival, and three is some kind of tournament.

I finished my meal in silence, not lowering myself to badger him for more hints. After I was done, I picked up my plate and put it in the sink.

"I'll be somewhere within eight hours journey," I offered to my less than curious audience as I left.

I picked up my stick spear as I left, twirling it with ease between my dexterous fingers. I didn't risk using chakra on the polo, since wood wasn't nearly as resistant as metal. Then again, if this was one of the Shodaime's trees… it wasn't, it was maybe three years max old when I cut it; Konoha has existed for over twenty-five years.

And without Hashirama's trees… well, there was no Konoha before them. I spun the pole around, stabbing imaginary enemies; too bad I didn't have the Kage Bunshin yet. Even water clones would do, clumsy, weak, and stupid as they were.

I sat down casually in the training ground, inspecting and polishing my gear. I made sure to rub a tiny bit of dirt on afterwards, shiny weapons were no good.

I checked my poison pouches, where I kept my poisoned weapons. No holes there, so we're good to go.

**XXX**

Time flew by in all its space-jet speed, seeing me to the entrance of the blacksmith's shop.

"Done?"

"60 ryo," My eyes became goggles, "Hey, prices are rising and you did say the best in Konoha."

He handed me the finished work, the smooth point shining in the light. I tested the balance, twirling the stick with eager ardor.

"It's good, but not that good, forty-five, tops."

"The lowest I can go is fifty-five, kid."

"No it's not, forty-nine."

"We both know you're going to buy it, fifty-three."

I scowled, "Why is the price so high?" I asked finally, goodness, a whole set of solid kunai sells for less than a third of this price.

"The metal is chakra metal," He grinned.

"What's the point of that?"

"Ah, you mean the wooden pole part, well, I know you're fond of seals, you'll figure it out."

Chakra metal costs about thirty times normal steel, so this price is actually not horrible.

I threw over fifty-three parts of my hard-earned savings, lightening my load to frightening degree. In return, the blacksmith made no complaint as I left the shop, new spear over my shoulder.

Hopefully, he's not some crook who sells iron to little kids saying 'Look here kids, chakra metal!' I _really _hope so. Though, to be honest I doubt he'd pull that on a ninja, let alone a police family Uchiha.

Police can make your life hard if you make them angry, abuse of power maybe, but it _does _keep everybody in one awfully straight line.

Fond of seals, right, as if I have the kind of fuinjutsu skill for taking advantage of this precious metal. Time to read, next stop: Konoha Archive!

I sealed my precious spear away, its healthy state too important to waste. I showed my head-band to the librarian, reciting my shinobi ID as I did so. Apparently, after a few months of grace time, you were expected to have the long code memorized.

Not a problem for ninja who have trained memories.

C-rank was my current access limit, B-rank requiring one to have at least the chunin title.

Ideally, I'd find some awesome way to make the tip zap enemies with powerful lightning. Unfortunately, that'd require me to have some skill in lightning manipulation. Well, unless I wanted everything going nuts out there.

A heated tip would be pointless, not to mention the risk of setting the stalk on fire.

Wind chakra had the same limitations as its lightning counterpart. What good would object sealing or reinforcement do me?

I tested the sharpness of the spear point, licking the blood that came out of my finger. Well, it wouldn't be flashy, but it would be sharp.

I brushed up on my knowledge, finally feeling confident enough to complete this little project.

I walked back to the Uchiha training ground, preparing my ink and brush.

I carefully drew the most space efficient reinforcement seal I knew on both sides on the tip, using my Sharingan to make it a precise work. I let my work dry in a shadowed area, the best for good seals.

With this, my spear tip wouldn't need sharpening for a very, very, long time.

**XXX**

Our team had already made a meet-up time and place, so I wasn't worried that Hiashi or Hironaka wouldn't show.

I took a deep breath, trying to dispel the clench in my chest. I believe this is what they call 'nervous', I hadn't had it for twelve years, or thereabout. So, to say I wished it would go away would be an absolute truth.

Before I could go on a truth tangent, Hiashi showed up, in all his pale glory. With incredibly smooth black hair and white eyes, Hyuuga could be identified by even the most unobservant idiot.

"Welcome to the chunin exams."

"Greetings, Nanashi-san."

"Well, I do hope you're as ready as can be."

"My training is incomplete."

"It always is, Hiashi-san."

"Indeed," He stood next to me, forehead-protector around his neck, showing off his unmarked forehead. That's one thing I'll never understand about the Hyuuga main branch; why on earth do they show the entire world 'My eyes can be stolen!'?

Kaede showed up, her outfit entirely practical as always, her face serious.

"Well, since team incredible is all here, why don't we join the party?"

"Why don't we?" Kaede cut in sarcastically.

I held my heart in mock-pain, enjoying her look of annoyance, "Why you ask? Because we haven't, not that that is a reason at all."

I turned, walking toward the door of the drab exam building. We walked on unchecked to our destination, room 2-3.

I inspected the seating, six rows of eleven, huh; twenty-two teams then, not a very big exam. I glanced at Kaede, "I doubt they'll sit the teams together, but if you don't understand how to do whatever they have us do, look at me."

She looked at me, not understanding for a minute, "Oh."

I was the leader, since Orochimaru wasn't with us, and she knew better than to question.

I looked at the ceiling, frowning as I saw the many sets of eyes observing the proceedings. There were quite a few chunin helping out then, eh?

Eventually, the jonin proctor came in, a wild looking fellow, with a chunin next to him carrying a box.

"Everybody line up!" He yelled, brooking no argument.

"Each one of you will draw exactly one paper from this box; it'll have a number that corresponds to a seat, find that seat and sit down."

Hopeful genin lined up and drew papers with efficiency, not wanting to offend the proctor.

I drew twenty-three, so I found my seat and sat down. Kaede must've drawn thirty-one, considering her position, lucky. Twenty-two or twenty-four would have been ideal, but being in the same row is good enough.

Two chunin stepped up to the front, carrying some sort of device.

"This is how the first phase is going to work; when I say go a paper will appear on your desk. But here's the thing, you need to write your answer to the question in under sixty seconds, and without marking your paper!"

"No talking allowed," He forestalled any questions, "Also, you pass or fail as a team in this section."

I opened the drawer on my desk, finding a pen as expected. Kaede always had one in her pocket, and Hiashi was a smart kid, so that part was taken care of.

"Begin!"

The chunin activated the device, and the tops of everyone's desks split in two and slid to the ground. That explained the spacing at least.

Write your answer, without marking the paper is it? I looked at the question, a laughably simple math equation.

Square root of four times three equals? Six, everybody knows that, so how do I write that down without marking my paper? Invisible ink was out, so how about a loop-hole?

He never said write the answer on the paper, it's just that the equals sign implies it. I quickly wrote twelve on my hand; then glanced at Kaede.

She was staring at me. I activated my Sharingan, showing her what I had done through an illusion. She caught on fast, writing down her answer with quite a bit of time left. Hiashi had the Byakugan, so if anyone figured out how to do it, so did he.

"Everybody up!" Everyone stood; some dejectedly, and the proctor listed off the teams that failed, ordering them out.

Only eight teams passed, well, if only one person is a weak link, the whole thing falls down. As expected it was a psych out test, if you couldn't get past your panic, of 'only a minute!' you fail.

The next proctor came in, a pleasant looking young man, "I'm Nagano Shirou, proctor of phase two. This will be held in training ground forty-four, better known as the Forest of Death." He smiled.

"If you'll all follow me, I'll explain how it'll work as we go."

We walked down the stairs, and he began going in the direction of the Forest, "This part will be a retrieve mission, each person will draw a paper, this paper will have a picture and description of something found in the Forest of Death. You'll be responsible for bringing it to the central tower before three days are over."

"Of course, the Forest is too big for surveillance, so you'll need to sign these wavers in case of your untimely death," He smiled again, his long light-brown hair swaying a little in the breeze.

"While we do discourage killing, strongly, there's really nothing we can do."

"Be aware that in this phase also you pass or fail as a team."

After everyone turned in their wavers in he spoke again, "Please line up in order, whoever sat in seat one first and then two and so on."

This placed me fairly close to the start of the line, hopefully I drew something easy.

"Be aware that you can come in with an incomplete list, but you'll be disqualified."

Basically, if you can't take the heat, come to the tower and we'll rescue you.

My turn to draw came quickly enough, and I drew my folded paper silently. I walked down the line with it safely in my hand, coming to Hiashi, who was third to last, "Don't hesitate to pick an easy one." I told him, and he nodded back, activating his Byakugan as he did so.

Once everyone had drawn the proctor again spoke, "You just need to bring the item or creature with a paper that corresponds to the tower, one for each team member."

I smiled as I caught the implication, if we don't like what we've got, go steal someone else's.

"Please choose a gate to start at, once everyone is in place I'll give the signal."

A chunin accompanied each team, radioing in when they stopped at a gate. I waited till most of the other teams were already done, and then picked a fringe gate. Fringe meaning on the edge of population, thus we were bordered by only one team.

"Let's open our papers and strategize this," I smirked at the exasperated chunin with us, we weren't near enough to a gate for him to radio in, giving us all the time in the world.

Kaede had drawn, 'Man-Eating Leech, alive' that was pretty obvious, but there might have been more than one variety of leech, so we memorized the markings.

I had gotten, 'Giant Tiger's teeth', hard to get, but not hard to find.

Hiashi had picked out something laughably simple, 'Deciduous Tree branch, at least three inches in diameter' a big weight for some teams, but with sealing scrolls, we were not inconvenienced.

The biggest problem would be keeping the giant leech alive, since we didn't exactly have a basin for water. We'd leave that for last, then.

Getting nods all around, we finally went to our gate.

"Team in place," The chunin said into his communicator.

The bell rang and the chunin opened the gate, closing it wordlessly after we were in. We instantly ran up the nearest large deciduous tree. I frowned as we came to a branch that fit the description.

"What was your plan for cutting it off?"

He looked at me. "Always think I've got something in my back pocket huh, turn around, and Hiashi, no Byakugan."

I'd used my circle Rasengan behind them before, but I still wasn't in the mood to let them know exactly how I had done the cutting.

I focused my chakra, blue energy taking a familiar shape. First, I cut off the part of the branch that didn't qualify, careful not to make the branch into a log; I didn't want to risk technicalities.

Once I was done with that, I cut off the branch from the tree, and it fell with a whump, "All done."

We went down the tree, sealing up the wooden once we hit the bottom.

Now to find a giant tiger.

"Any tigers nearby, Hiashi-san?"

He activated his Byakugan briefly, "No."

"What's your distance on that thing?"

"Seventy-eight meters."

"Perfect, use it every thirty-nine then, that way we don't miss anything."

"Yes."

As ninja, we were skilled at estimating distances, even from tree branches. Hiashi kept up the good work until we became tired, which wasn't until dusk.

Fortunately, all of us had had the forethought to eat directly before the exam, and I again had a trick up my sleeve. Literally, since that's where I had kept the scroll with our supper.

Despite rising food costs, I had spent enough time and money to get enough food for three kids for five days. Plenty for this wimpo phase.

I unsealed my less than expertly made food-stuffs; at least they were still hot. I'd put everything in as rice, steak, or peppers, rather than say, chicken with salad in each box. Sometimes stuff really sloshed around in wherever storage scrolls sent them to.

I removed a bottle of soy sauce, white rice, and seasoned steak. Not bad for a meal on the road.

I also got out some cheap old plates I used for this kind of work, handing them out to each of my teammates.

"Eat up."

Unfortunately, all we had to contain water was water bottles, unfortunate since they weren't big enough to fit a giant leech. Nevertheless, it worked well for drinking.

"I'll take first watch, Kaede; I'll wake you up for the second so get some rest."

She scowled at having the most unfavorable watch, but accepted it. We spent the night in the trees, not for the first time, since risking whatever creatures lurked below wasn't advisable.

I scanned the area with my Sharingan, wishing that we would have found a tiger all the while. I heard a distant roar; lucky punks got one to come to them.

Heh, I chuckled at my own thoughts, who would've thought that someday I'd think that someone attacked by a giant tiger was _lucky_? Not I. It wasn't important, keeping my team alive was.

I liked them both well enough, and, well, I needed them to pass this exam. I kept watch for my three hours before waking up Kaede and lying my very exhausted body down.

I fell asleep instantly, uncaring of the hardness of what served for my pillow. The night clearly passed uneventfully, because Hiashi calmly woke me up in the morning.

"Most exciting thing?"

"A spider the size of your head crawled over your face." Hironaka answered dryly.

"Interesting, I hope he liked how very smooth it is."

Ever hot-tempered, Kaede glowered at me for not rising to the bait. "So," I asked, "Any tigers?"

"Negative, unseal breakfast."

I made no complaint, unsealing ham and potatoes for breakfast. We ate with appropriate paranoia, glancing around every once in a while.

"Don't make a sound, team below us, unknown name." Hiashi informed as he quietly ate his next bite.

"Possibly hostile?"

"Unlikely, team seems frantic; one member has a leg wound."

"Ignore them then, eat breakfast; then continue the search."

I sealed up the plates, making sure I did it in order; I'd hate to eat off of Hyuuga's plate. We silently got up and continued where we had left off.

"I'm surprised; the second phase doesn't seem much of a challenge." Kaede prompted, knowing well enough I'd have a reason.

"Ah, but you see, no other team really has hot food sealed up with them." In fact, that alone is enough to pretty much defeat the point of the phase.

"I figured you'd have that kind of reply."

"I'm sure you did, you know me well enough."

We again heard a roar, I grinned, this time it was much closer.

"Possible target, proceed with normal caution."

We all headed in the direction, finding another team running from what could only be described as one ridiculously large tiger. This was laughable, the author of Naruto sure didn't mind messing with physics a bit.

"Target acquired, teeth required," I unsealed my spear, perfect for a little big game hunting.

"Use kunai?"

"Negative, hide is sure to be too thick, see if you can catch it in a genjutsu." While generally pointless, animals could be ensnared in genjutsu as well, useful in situations like this.

Kaede left in front of the beast, looking it straight in the eye as she went through some hand-seals. Heh, now the thing would see double.

I jumped down onto its back, sticking it with my spear as I impacted. I stabbed repeatedly, until the angry monster got smart and began slamming its sides into trees. I had no interest in becoming a splat, so I leapt away.

I sealed the spear back up, then began a series of well-practiced hand-seals, "Katon: Great Fireball!"

The ball of flame roared to life, shooting straight for the tiger's face. It hit, the beast dodging the wrong one, I did say it saw double.

It screamed in pain, its eyes burnt to a crisp, its fur on fire, "Target is retreating, pursue!"

The tiger roared its agony to the sky as it ran for all it was worth, which was quite a bit, before its fur caught on fire. Tiger fur sells.

I slowly formed hand-seals as I ran, "Katon: Phoenix Sage Fire!" Six fireballs shot out from my mouth, chasing down the king of the forest.

I wove the balls around branches and vines; finally they impacted on the tiger's rear end, causing it to run with one last burst of speed. Finally, the noble creature gave up the fight, lying down to face its death.

I was just glad it didn't try to fight us before, those paws looked wicked. I unsealed my spear, taking it in both hands.

I tossed it up, catching it in my right hand in a throwing grip. I inexpertly hurled my spear toward the tiger, the incredibly sharp tip sliced through the flesh easily; the spear finally coming to a stop two feet in.

"Exercise high caution, move in."

All three of us advanced with trepidation, our fear of death keeping us careful. I activated my Sharingan, "Target is dead, collecting teeth." I signaled my teammates to keep watch while I carved the teeth out, I didn't exactly have pliers.

After I had gotten all the teeth I could reasonably manage, I gathered them up, sealing with into a new scroll. I stuffed it in my ninja pack, noting its exact position.

I pulled my spear from the dead body, wiping the handle off with my jacket.

"Hiashi, same pattern, search for live giant leeches."

He nodded, and we took off in search of sluggish water. Hiashi focused on his eyes and jumping; Kaede and I kept a look-out for enemies.

It took just under an hour for Hiashi to locate a group of the designated man-eaters. We already knew the direction of the tower, so we set off, leech in hand.

Every few minutes I'd unseal some water on top of the creature, not wanting to run any risk of its death. In due time, the tower came into view, Hiashi scanned the area, and, since he saw nothing troubling, we made the dash for the tower.

I unsealed the teeth, and the branch, handing the papers over with them even as Kaede shoved the leech at the proctor. He called over two helpers, and they confirmed the items.

"You'll need to wait in the tower until the phase is done, there's a room for you here, please don't leave it. I'm afraid I'll have to disqualify you if you do," He grinned.

"Food and water provided?"

"Of course, hungry?"

"Yes," Hiashi nodded as Kaede and I spoke simultaneously.

"A chunin will be in shortly with some standard stuff," As it turned out, standard meant bland.

There was nothing to do but sharpen kunai and play around with chakra strings; I hadn't brought any cards so poker was out. A mistake I'd never repeat.

But, it's not as if playing with chakra string was _that _boring, I amused myself by trying to shoot strings out my toes. It didn't work worth a hoot for hours, but gradually my proficiency did increase.

By the end of the day I could shoot a sturdy string from one side to the other.

Then, predictably, thought mania struck me, if I could shoot chakra strings out my toes, why not any other part of me? I held up my arm, concentrating my chakra. With a mental shove a wire of blue chakra came from it, attaching to the wall.

I grinned, who said you had to use your fingers? Not I.

My control over the length and thickness was insanely low, but the string was there, only improvement was possible. I released my control of the technique, the thread fading into the air.

I frowned in thought, if I could shoot the strings from anywhere on my body, I could also make them any thickness. I held my palm out, flat relative to the wall, and shot out what could only be described as a cable.

"Kaede."

"What?" She asked, irritably.

"Mind putting some weight on it?"

"On what?" She inquired; her face still downward into her book.

"Look up," I ordered, causing her to huff and place her book down.

"Holy-" She cut herself off upon seeing my glare, "No problem."

"This whole thing chakra?" She asked as she pulled on it.

"Yes," I have no idea how to test the true strength of the cable; after all, even the strings are enough to hold up at least fifty pounds.

I dispelled it, not wanting to exhaust my chakra pool further, "Thanks."

Still, the technique is closely associated with puppetry; and no appendage but the finger is nimble enough for such complicated work, so I can understand the misconception.

This meant the actual uses of the things weren't really modified at all, though a slight bit of versatility was added. Of course, if one could launch a chakra wire from the bottom of their feet parallel to said feet and could tight-rope walk, well, chasms would be no object.

Not that I'm foolish enough to believe that I can walk across the grand canyon any time I want yet, far from it.

I lied down in the bed provided, wanting to get some rest.

**XXX**

Before long, I was awake again; I quickly got up, feeling hungry. Since I was in no mood to eat the worse-than-my-own meals the chunin brought I unsealed some breakfast. The smell of food quickly woke my sleeping team, so I wordlessly served out portions for the both of them.

Hiashi took his, thanking me properly like a good little noble. Kaede, however, was less polite; she just took her portion and stuck her hand out for chopsticks.

I grinned at the rude behavior, handing out chopsticks to the both of them.

We ate in silence, finishing breakfast before any discussion. All three of us were efficient eaters in the field, so in under eight minutes we were comfortably done.

As team leader and self-proclaimed conversationalist, I saw it as my duty to begin the talking, "The next phase is sure to be some kind of arena fight."

"One on one?" Kaede asked.

"Most likely, unless they do teams versus teams, they don't really have the numbers for that though."

"True, the number of participants seemed a little low."

Very low, the manga's chunin exams had hundreds of people, even factoring out foreign students it's still low.

"Maybe jonin who are teaching don't feel a push to make their students move on, with the lull in war right now." In truth, the villages were just waiting for a chance to strike, the nominal peace at the end of the Second War incredibly shaky.

In fact, there was no written document to prove a complete cessation of war, so tensions were rather high.

"It's a distinct possibility, perhaps even the Hokage advised against pushing the genin beyond their limits."

"That being the case, we can expect at least 65% of this phases' participants will pass."

Kaede scowled a little, "So many?"

"Only five or six teams."

"I see; if we assume that we'll be fighting one on one, what reason is there to speak?" Hiashi asked.

"None I suppose, still, talking can always help us improve."

He cocked his head side-ways a little, as if thinking. Finally he replied, "Talking can only get one so far."

"My own thoughts exactly, nonetheless, it is best to wring as much benefit from every avenue as is conceivably possible."

He nodded at this, having heard similar from me before.

We waited patiently for the end of this portion of the exam, and in due time we were rewarded, a chunin came in, "Please report to the main office."

We got up, thankful for the release from our little prison. We found Nagano conversing with another, white-haired, jonin, who smiled and broke off from the conversation after a few seconds, coming front and center.

"I'm Hatake Sakumo; I'll be presiding over the final stage of these chunin exams. This year is the second anniversary of our grand arena, I hope you like it. If you'll follow me we'll head over and the Hokage will address you."

We followed Sakumo through an underground tunnel to the famous arena, a giant pair of hands forming the ram seal off to the side.

The Hokage removed himself from his little throne regally, speaking with a voice of authority, "You are here today to prove to me, this village, and all of your comrades that you are worthy of the title chunin. I don't want you to think is a simple affair, mere nomination is an honor, making it to the final round is worthy of no less applause."

"I want you to remember this; your rank is nothing when compared to devotion to the village and its people. So may your Will of Fire burn bright a month from now, I'll see you then."

Hiruzen stood up, leaving the stage after his little speech.

"This is how the final phase will work," Sakumo spoke up after coughing for attention, "Each team will fight two battles, but not in the way you probably think."

"Each team will choose two members to fight together, and one to fight alone. Your final promotion is mainly dependent of Hokage-sama's opinion of your performance. This includes choosing wisely who will fight alone and who will fight together."

"The matches will be randomized, and we'll tell you nothing about who you're going to fight."

I glanced over at Minato, he having passed phase two. His team must be alright for them to come this far.

"In one month from today, report in at eight a.m. with your selections." The Hatake clan head left in a burst of smoke, leaving a number of perplexed genin behind him. I did not count myself among their number.

"Meet at our usual training ground in the morning, usual time," I ordered, getting nods from Hiashi and Kaede. Well, I certainly had not expected _this _setup of all things, I guess I'll deal.

**Authors Note: Thank you for reading my humble work *bows formally* I hope you enjoy it.**

**I hope you liked this take on the chunin exams, if you didn't… write a better one I guess? Anyway, as always, reviews are welcome, please look forward to the next chapter of As a Ninja, and have a very merry Christmas.**

**With all due holiday cheer, Iamwhononofyouare**


	14. Chapter 14, Chunin for Three

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, un.**

**Say Hello to Chapter 14**

I left to meet with my team at the designated location, surprised to find Orochimaru there. I was in no mood to question the genius on how _he_ got the memo, so I let it slide.

The pale jonin, however, was less reticent, "How was it, Nanashi-kun?" He twirled a kunai in a vaguely threatening manner.

"It was a surprise, I thought the 3rd stage would be a one-on-one bracket style tournament."

"Hn? I suppose that's not uncommon, proctors like to be original though." He blew it off easily.

"Yes, I suppose there is a certain allure to trying something no one else has, perhaps that's why inventing new techniques is such a rush?"

He deigned to look down at me, "You would know a little about that."

Ooh, flattery to encourage me to spill the beans, nice, "I'm sure you're far more experienced in such an area of interest," I replied, nonplussed.

"Oh I don't know, look, there are the other two leaflets."

I looked up, spotting Hiashi coming from the direction of the Hyuuga compound and Kaede coming from the market in a hurry. Someone decided to buy some things in the morning it would seem.

"Hiashi-san, Kaede-san, I am pleased you both could come."

They each greeted Orochimaru-sensei and then me, before Kaede brought up why we were here, "So, who's fighting as a pair and who's alone?"

Since Orochimaru didn't hand down any instructions on the matter, the choice fell to me. I'd already made up my opinion however, and I was quite ready to give it.

"Hiashi-san should fight alone."

"Why? You're clearly the most powerful of the team." Orochimaru prodded.

"While not unheard of, Kaede is unused to taking instructions from Hiashi, and vice versa. Besides, it's more important to win the team portion, no?" It was a fact; if Orochimaru wasn't around I was almost always team leader. The snake Sannin was a good teacher, however, so he gave each field experience to each in leading, but it fell short.

Besides, Hiashi was better suited to fighting solo than I was, if our power levels were equal. And there was no way I was going to send Kaede out in the solo fight if I could help it, she was a support type.

I said as much in a more formal wording to my little audience, getting approval. Indeed, Hironaka and Hiashi were ninja first, kids second, which lent a degree of maturity to their decisions not seen in other genin, like Naruto.

"So, are you training us or did you come only for the fun of it?" I asked Orochimaru, careful to not sound _too_ abrasive.

He stared at me impassively, "Do you need training?"

"Yes." I wasn't so arrogant as to think that I needed no training to secure my victory.

"Yes."

Hiashi's eyes narrowed slightly, his brow bent in thought, "Yes," He answered slowly, "But I'd rather receive further training from my Honored Father, if you'll excuse me."

I bowed slightly, Orochimaru just waved him off.

Orochimaru formed a couple of shadows clones, "Ask them for whatever, I'm needed elsewhere."

Such an absentee teacher, not that I was supremely disappointed; rather, I was eager to learn whatever the clone saw fit to teach me. Since I was in no mood to train in front of Kaede; I leapt away to the other end of the training ground, the clone assigned to me following dutifully.

"You must have some idea on what to teach me."

"Oh yes, what you need is a secondary chakra nature."

"So soon? Perfect."

The clone nodded briefly, "You've used a chakra paper before, yes?"

"Yes, fire affinity, with possible tiny lightning."

"Well then, what would you like to learn?"

Considering my current affinity, something more defensive would be nice, so, "Earth."

"Not a bad choice, don't expect to get much of anywhere before the match."

"That's fine; I have confidence in my current abilities."

Compared to the erratic motion of fire chakra, earth was incredibly steady, a constant rumble. Like Orochimaru said, I wouldn't be using earth chakra just for the heck of it any time soon.

For my benefit, the clone used an earth technique while I was watching via Sharingan, greatly enhancing my limited knowledge. By no means was this a simple task, but with the grand crutch known as Sharingan and my own genius intellect, success was the only possible result.

The weeks passed in this manner, Orochimaru making a clone for me and Hironaka each day. Finally, on the day before the final phase, Hiashi showed up.

"How did it go, Hiashi-san?"

"Well, I feel ready."

"That's good, because I don't feel much different."

"Orochimaru-sensei is a good teacher, so why not?"

"Because all I've learned is how to do is this."

I focused my chakra, forming a hand-seal to ease the process. The ground started to move below me, my chakra stirring up the latent chakra in the dirt, finally, I formed a cannon ball out of the earth.

"Earth manipulation, I see."

"Getting past the limitations of having no affinity is a pain, but for guys like us it's a lot easier."

Hiashi clearly understood my reference, nodding in agreement.

"D-," I fixed the speaker with a glare pulling out a paralytic kunai, "Stupid," Kaede corrected, "Doujutsu."

"Quite so, eyeballs have no intelligence whatsoever, enhanced or not."

She glared right back at me now, "Whatever."

"How would you two like to grab a meal?"

**X**

After we had sat down and ordered I spoke up, "Normally," I began, "I would tell you: 'Don't show off, get it done quickly and cleanly.' However, we need to impress the audience with our _grand_ capabilities, so don't be afraid to pull some super-powerful, preferably non-lethal, technique out of your sleeve."

"Obviously we've already decided that Hiashi will be fighting alone, but we have no idea who any of us is going to fight. Therefore, be prepared for any kind of opponent."

"Kaede, don't be useless, you don't really need to be told this, but take a little initiative, all three of us want to graduate. At the same time, if I instruct you to do something, it's going to look very bad if you disobey to any kind of negative effect, even if things would have gone even worse had you done what I said."

"That's how people are, don't complain," I blew off her ready-to-burst objection.

"And why are people that way you ask? Quite simple, we can't see the future."

That makes me slightly different from everyone else, I'm not stupid, my effect here has spiraled out of control; certain things just don't change though. What they are I have no idea, but I doubt my presence will cause the 3rd shinobi war to never exist or some such thing.

Could I have changed its outcome to favor Iwa somehow? Perhaps, since I've affected Minato.

Our food came now, and we ate in silence before I broke the ice once more, "So, Hiashi, how _did _things go?"

"Chichi-ue taught me many things."

"As silent as the grave are we?"

"Negative, the grave makes no noise."

"Technically, true. I applaud you, Hiashi-san." I made no move to clap my hands.

"Yay," Kaede made a little face as she stated thus.

"It is my most treasured honor to have studied with you in the ninja arts. How is it?"

"Abrupt Nanashi, what's it for?"

"Team Orochimaru's dissolution party."

Her face fell at that, if only slightly, "It's not as if we'll never see each other again, not that it'd be a total loss if that was how it was."

She immediately affected a poise of hurt feeling, curling her lower lip downward and making puppy-dog eyes.

"Good, good, you'll convince naïve people everywhere with that face Kaede-san, you should go into acting." Strange isn't it? Movies and kunai are the stuff of this world, not plays and katana, or guns and Hollywood.

Well, it's not as if I won't miss them both my teammates, but it's better if I'm alone for my plans.

**XXX**

The next day was full of visitors, the arena attracting quite a few rich, prospective, clients. It seemed Konoha wasn't afraid to show off its genin, even to foreign spies. And spies there no doubt were, from every village, great and small.

It was the way of the ninja to spy and to steal, to kill and to show off. The matches were most likely randomized for real, since no foreign ninja were part of the exam.

And don't kid yourself, randomization is a scam in nine cases out of say… eleven. Still, whoever I got I doubted he'd be a life-threatening challenge, even if his teammate were to be better than Kaede.

The Hatake clan head was full of smiles as he waited for the set time, brimming with a young parent's enthusiasm for life. It was no secret; the Hatake clan had an heir now, one named Kakashi.

It wasn't that big of a clan these days, the second shinobi war did that to a lot of clans, but still, it had been a small event. Nothing I was invited to of course.

I walked forward, bringing the paper with our choice to the white-haired proctor, "Sir, it is my honor to present to you," I handed over, "Our choices for the matches."

He skimmed through it, reading the entirely too short 'Hironaka Kaede and Uchiha Nanashi for the pair, Hyuuga Hiashi will fight solo.' He pointed out the contestant's booth gifting us with his words of wisdom, "Don't inflict any kind of physical trauma on any of the other teams, you'll get disqualified."

Basically, taunts are fine, but don't get violent kids.

On a side note, this is perfect, if we can rile up and provoke some brat and get him to attack… eh, no fun, since I don't have a specific team I want to fight. Still, other teams might try it.

"If you guys want to get a different team disqualified, go right ahead, but don't fall for any taunts yourself."

"We get it already, mom," Kaede replied.

"I hope you do, because he never said _I _couldn't inflict damage on _you_."

"You have no reason to."

"Not if I want to fight two on two, but if I knock you out then I can be the impressive kid who won two on one."

Her eyes widened, "You would not."

I grinned, "No, not today."

She clearly caught the rather arrogant implication, 'If I felt like it, I could take you out and then destroy two guys at once' since she didn't really know exactly where I stood power-wise, the tactic worked well.

Sorry to make you a guinea pig Kaede, but I need a live specimen to practice this kind of thing on. And, well, let's just say Hiashi wasn't ideal.

Hironaka and Hiashi did not take advantage of the virtual permission to attempt to disqualify enemies given by the proctor himself, opting to simply stand next to me. Before long the very last of the contestants arrived, taking their places in the stand.

The Hokage rattled off some speech for the near-glowing crowd, before handing the reins back to Sakumo.

"Our first match is: Namikaze Minato versus Yamauchi Akio!" The two made their way down to the floor of the arena, sizing each other up.

It wasn't famous yet, but Minato hated wasting time in a fight, resulting in a style that was made for the fewest hand-seals possible: Zero. Of course, since he didn't have the Rasengan or the Hiraishin yet, it wasn't complete, but it's the thought that counts.

I'd never heard of this Yamauchi, but he was obviously good enough to make it to stage three.

"Begin!" Sakumo raised lowered his arm away, signaling the start of the fight.

Minato leapt forward, throwing kunai with great skill even as he did so. Akio, however, was no slouch, easily dodging or deflecting the projectiles; and even returning fire a little.

Minato formed a single hand-seal, bunshin coming to life around him. I activated my Sharingan, not wanting to miss anything.

Behind the illusory cover of his rapidly depleting clones, Minato formed a few hand-seals, wanting to end the confrontation now. He leapt forward, a deadly wind-blade shooting from his hand at Yamauchi.

I smirked as my Sharingan broke down the technique for me, assimilating the particular jutsu. This was one of the points of interest of the Sharingan; it allowed you use a technique exactly as the other person did, provided you had sufficient chakra and control.

What it does not do is teach you how the other person acquired the skill, preventing you from learning much beyond the technique in question. And if the subject's knowledge of the technique was low, it'd be that much harder. As with all blood-lines, it's a crutch, not an end-game.

So, while incredibly useful, the copy ability was not complete. The only completion for it: to be entirely competent in all areas of chakra manipulation, making copying techniques redundant.

While sharp and fast, Minato's wind-blade was not lethal, leaving Akio in a bad state, but not in one incapable of continuing, fortunately, the genin was smarter than that, and resigned.

Next were obviously Minato's two male teammates against Akio's two female teammates.

While not as impressive as Minato, his team was sufficient, Akio being clearly the best on his team. So, after an elaborate trap and some inappropriate comments, no doubt from that fool Jiraiya, the boys won.

Not unexpectedly, next was Hiashi against his opponent, a certain Terada Seiji.

"Hiashi-san, you aren't the type for luck, so, may your skill be with you in full."

He nodded once, briefly, as he went on down to the arena; Seiji nearly mirroring his movements.

"Begin!" Sakumo yelled, even as he jumped away, letting the contestants begin.

"Terada-san, I do not know you, or your skills, but I know mine; surrender, and save yourself some pain." He took a Jyuuken stance.

"Fat chance, Hyuuga," Seiji began throwing dangerously sharp shuriken. But Hiashi was not a practitioner of the Jyuuken who trained with me with no result.

With intensely precise strokes the shuriken fell uselessly to the floor, Hiashi gracefully advancing toward his opponent. The cause? Rather denser chakra at the tips of his fingers, plus the all-seeing eye. This resulted in a quite solid protection for the precise fingers, allowing him to tap speeding projectiles out of the air.

Terada immediately perceived his impending doom, but was not ready to give up. Three hand-seals later he was across the arena, having replaced himself with a block of stone, presumably for this very purpose.

Seiji threw a few kunai; then drew a tanto, interesting. A tanto was little more than a hunting knife, but with skill, knives could be a dangerous as any sword.

Terada engaged the Hyuuga scion in a dangerous close-range exchange, resulting in the gradual closing of his tenketsu.

"Winner: Hyuuga Hiashi!" Hatake yelled forcefully as the match came to its obvious close.

"Good job, Hiashi-san." It wasn't glamorous, but Hiashi didn't even need to use his more impressive skills.

Kaede and I were up against Iwasaki, and wasn't that a bad name to have in Konoha, Toshio, and Miyasato Masami, a female kunoichi wearing a kimono. Not my recommended attire for aspiring ninja, but it wasn't something impossible to fight in.

"It is my honor to make your acquaintance, please take care of me." I gave a proper martial arts sign of respect.

Hironaka stood to my side, too proud to copy my movements and not stupid enough to contradict them. Truly a dilemma of grand proportions, in any case, we weren't here for pleasantries.

"Hatake-san, please begin the match at your leisure."

His right eyebrow rose slightly for a second, then he stepped forward, sticking out his arm horizontally.

"Begin!" He called, and instantly my Sharingan came alive again.

"I will defeat Masami; do your best against the boy."

The two we were fighting were, obviously, older than we were, but success was not reliant on such things.

"I am a child who has many tricks, the people of this world call me Uchiha Nanashi," I properly introduced myself to my opponent.

"I am a young lady who is not intimidated by you, I am called Miyasato Masami." She withdrew a box from somewhere, sitting in seiza and placing it in front of her.

"A curious strategy," I presume it's to throw me off, the closed eyes and sitting posture seeming entirely to open to even the most foolish person.

"Since I'll only receive a minor reprimand for killing you if I do… I'll just not take that risk." I went through the hand-seals, "Katon: Firewall!" I spat out the extremely dense ball of contained flammability, the target being the ground directly behind Masami.

Her eyes widened and she leapt forward, straight into my waiting hands. My own eyes widened as she burst into smoke, who'd taught her the Kage Bunshin, and when did she use it?

My eyes narrowed as I spied the box, it had to be related to that. It didn't matter, the box would die and so would she.

I unsealed my spear, leaping forward to attack the mysterious box, in the blink of an eye the box was split in two by the sharp tip of my spear. In that same moment a kunai whizzed past, I turned around.

Clever, they used a strange, useless, box and shadow clone to occupy my attention for precious seconds while the real Masami and her male friend focused on Kaede. Miyasato was sweating a little, the shadow clone having taxed her less than stellar reserves.

Hironaka was clearly being pressed to the very extent of her ability, so I rushed over with all proper caution. My spear quickly found purchase in a small portion of a distracted Masami's flesh, causing her to bleed.

Iwasaki turned his attention to me, making the mistake of eye-contact.

It wasn't refined but I did know something of the tricks of the trade, "I can see your future, Toshio."

"And what is it?" I asked in unison with him.

"You can't see anything-g," I was a tiny margin behind this time, hopefully he wouldn't notice.

Fortunately, the legend of the Sharingan seeing the future and my own copying of his words was enough to override his more rationale side.

"Your future is death!" I yelled, perfectly in sync with him once more.

He sped through hand-seals of his own, with me mirroring his movements the entire way.

"Katon: Tiny Flame Bullets!" We cried in unison, bullet sized straight-firing little fireballs emitting from our mouths. This is what I mean by incomplete, unlike with Kakashi, who used the technique before Zabuza, and therefore won; I used it at the same time, leaving the result questionable.

However, I didn't do fire training for nothing, so while our bullets cancelled each other out, mine were smaller, allowing me to squeeze out two more for the same cost.

I grinned as the last two bullets impacted against Toshio's disbelieving face. I pulled my spear out of the ground, placing it on the genin's neck.

"Iwasaki Toshio: Out!" Sakumo yelled with fervor, still full of energy. The Hatake then evacuated said boy from the arena, handing him to the medics. I doubted the scars from the little burns on his face would ever totally go away, but he was certainly alive.

Kaede had already managed to trap Masami in a genjutsu, and was placing a kunai to her neck by the time I arrived at the scene.

"Miyasato Masami: Out! Winners: Uchiha Nanashi and Hironaka Kaede."

I bowed to the audience, first in the direction of the Hokage, and then to the sides, I did not turn around. Turning your back on the highest authority is not the way to go, rude and all that, remember etiquette lessons?

I'll admit, if I'd wasted a couple more seconds on the box trick Hironaka may have been defeated, but I doubt they would have ultimately won. Since it wasn't exactly the last match of the day, I left the stage with Kaede, letting the next teams come in.

I didn't really care about their names, but what mattered was this: the same team won both fights by a decent margin.

"In two weeks you, or if you have no mailing address, your sensei, will receive a letter, which contains this village's opinion of your skills and information on whether or not you have been promoted, thank you." No second tier matches? Curious, but I suppose it's alright.

I have a certain degree of confidence in my promotion, but I won't pretend that I know everything a genin should know. Of course, it'd be very strange if the 'Firewall' didn't convince everyone watching.

Since whatever ending ceremony there was held no appeal to me, I left the area, heading home to rest up. Seriously, Firewall takes way too much out of me.

Since my family hadn't managed to extricate themselves from the audience, I was the first to arrive home. I was slightly tired, and had nothing better to do, so I just slept.

**XXX**

Lazy. That's what I am, lazy; my lack-luster attitude resulted in my sleeping the day away. Utterly unacceptable, inefficient. To say the least, I was disgusted with myself; did I think that because I had a chance of being promoted all my worries were over or something?

Ridiculous, in a harsh world like this one cannot ever stop striving to become greater, ambition. I needed a clear goal, something grand to aim for. But then again, didn't such one-sided quests always result in foolish mistakes?

Take Sasuke for example, he had an ambition, he had talent, he pushed himself, when I left at least 50% of the readers hated him. Me included, really; revenge for family causing you to turn traitor? Something like surviving should have been more important. Of course, the reasons for the massacre were blurred in my mind at best; Danzo ordered it on suspicion of high treason.

Were the Uchiha really rebelling? Vaguely, my mind recalled, yes, yes they were. Why? I didn't suppose that tidbit would ever come to me.

But, with a little more rationale, I can actually agree with Sasuke's choice, he betrayed some glorified organization in order to gain power for his goals, preying upon everyone's desire for him to return alive. With my current mind-set, I can even respect that.

Itachi's crime is not to be laughed at, whether or not he did it on orders for the village's survival or out of some kind of twisted sense of bloodlust, the fact remains, he at the least assisted in killing hundreds. Yes, hundreds; out of all the clans, the Uchiha had the most members.

It's not as if I haven't considered leaving Konoha; Orochimaru would be the perfect opportunity. Of course, there are plenty of risks; I might become nothing more than his next body. Nonetheless, if I _do _become his apprentice, and I will, no one - I mean that - will teach me anything more.

It's kind of a conundrum; the clear choice is to learn everything useful from Orochimaru-sensei before he leaves the village. Or I could try to convince him to stay? That brought up the risk of being killed on the chance I might report his suspected impending desertion.

If only I could find some other teacher. Sasori would be perfect, but, let's be serious, where in the seven seas was he right now? Akatsuki was hardly hiring S-ranks at this point, if it even existed.

Jiraiya was out, and becoming a medic-nin was not on my list of favorite things to do. Not that I mind healing, in fact, Kabuto's regeneration sounds incredibly useful, still, bending down and healing in some hospital for years would probably be inevitable.

Orochimaru was in, I had a working relationship with him and my apprenticeship was assured if I did not turn it down.

I broke off my mind from my thinking, opting to go out of my room and eat some supper. After eating, I wasn't in the mood to experiment with my grand repertoire, so I grabbed a book and read until I became tired.

In the morning I had the presence of mind to return to our team's general meeting area.

I was pleasantly surprised to find my entire team waiting for me, though a little shocked. Shocked because to my knowledge instruction to meet up was never passed out, perhaps we know each other better than I thought?

"Told you he'd show," Kaede quipped to Hiashi, obviously pleased with her supposedly better people reading skills.

"Indeed," Hiashi replied evenly.

"Yes, I'm here. What is your favored course of action, sensei?"

"I suppose we shall define our plans, yes?"

"That is the question, to remain a team or to not remain a team?" They didn't catch the reference, but I did, and that's what counted.

"If all of you are completely devoted to me I can keep you on, I suppose." Orochimaru admitted.

"You're a good teacher, Sensei, but I think that if I get promoted I'll want a little more freedom." My, my, how short-sighted Kaede.

"Chichi-ue is of the opinion that I should quit, because my 'promotion is assured, and going around with that Uchiha is out of the question'. I am distinctly in disagreement, but I will respect his wishes."

"I see, then Hiashi, please have good fortune on your travels, my most sincere wishes for your happiness," I bowed slowly and properly.

"Thank you, Nanashi, we'll meet again," He bowed to each of us in turn, though not as low as I had done to him, but that was to be expected, he was an heir after all.

Like he said, we'd meet again, still, after over a year together it'd be strange if I didn't feel something when he left. So I did, I felt the power of loneliness, irrational though it was. It felt bad to see him really go; but I convinced myself it was a fleeting feeling, by tomorrow I wouldn't even care.

"Sensei, what do we have on our agenda today then?"

"Well, Nanashi-kun, I think it's time I began teaching you some sword skills, hn?"

"That would be perfect."

"You, girl, my clones will teach you some useful things." Orochimaru made several clones, and then said artificial beings took off with Hironaka.

"This, little one, is how to hold a sword," He took a loose stance; "I got you something a little smaller." He threw me what I recognized as a chisa katana, it had a shorter blade but an equal handle, as opposed to a one-handed wakizashi.

That's not to say it was meant to be used only with two hands, only that the handle allowed for such a maneuver.

"Should I use my Sharingan?"

"No, for something like this copying is out of the question; I have confidence in your ability to overcome the rigidity of copied kenjutsu, but I don't want to risk it."

I see, another weakness in the Sharingan, if you learn something from it you have the tendency to lose creativity, you think 'what would he do?' rather than, 'what should I do?' it's a big difference actually.

I took the same stance as my teacher, silently correcting my mistakes as he pointed them out ruthlessly. Orochimaru certainly had a teaching style that wasn't in everybody; he criticized without restraint, but gave all the more gratifying praise when one succeeded. After all, if you're always getting praised, it'll just go to your head.

We spent the rest of the day this way, indeed; we spent the next two weeks this way, until the results for the chunin exams came in.

Hiashi and I had both been promoted, Kaede was not so lucky. Her jealousy was mitigated by the fact that both the Hyuuga and I were superior in ability, but this resulted in an unfortunate case of self-loathing. To put it simply, she was depressed because she was inferior, and she knew it was her own fault. Though, to be honest, both Hiashi and I had the advantage of training since very, very, young.

It wasn't something I knew how to deal with, since my response to such things, even before my life in this world, would be to angrily tell her that she was pathetic and should just get over it. Of course, _that _just _had_ to feel wrong, so I had to be awkward around her.

Don't blame me; I was responsible in a way, enough to make me feel a little guilty.

Unsurprisingly, Minato had been promoted as well, for his impressive display of nature manipulation and general skill. Of course, if a supposed genius like him hadn't been promoted I'd be one surprised chunin.

By the end of a month I felt much more secure in my knowledge of sword wielding than ever before in my life. By necessity, I was a quick learner, having no distractions I merely pushed myself onward, ever growing in skill.

Rather than single mindedness I'd call it… the 'nothing better to do' syndrome. Nothing held anything approaching a high degree of my interest other than training and studying chakra as best I could.

By no means did I consider that I could hold a candle to anyone deserving of the rank A; but certain B-rankers were not beyond me in ability. However, this is all rather uninteresting as compared to my current situation. Kaede had replaced a dead genin, a sadly common occurrence, leaving me as the sole student of the legendary Orochimaru.

This, however, was not the situation deserving of interest.

"My first B-rank, is it?" I asked rhetorically, "Sounds good, Sensei."

"Just an assassination, nothing too difficult about it," Almost all kill missions were at least B-rank, since they were generally more dangerous than fresh genin could handle. Curiously, the cost range for a B-rank mission was the largest, since they were the bulk of missions for any village.

Our target was a wealthy businessman who lived in Tanzaku Gai, the client being his son who was eager to inherit. Apparently, he was displeased with his father, and his father was getting ready to make the second son heir. Since Konoha wanted happy merchants, they hadn't turned the request down.

Tanzaku Gai had slums, so the merchant had some skilled, but cheap, guards who were honest and loyal, according to the eldest son. He didn't want them dead, since they would continue working, only for him.

The mother, by stated mission parameters, was inconsequential; if killing her made the evidence point less to him; he'd not say 'don't kill her'.

At the same time, the mission was compounded by the fact that the client had sent a resounding no to any meetings with the hired ninja. Apparently he was prudent enough to realize that the less he knew; the better.

"When do we leave?"

"You're always ready, yes?"

"That's right."

"Then we leave now, you'll make the plans once we get there, as long as it's acceptable, it'll be what we use."

I saw, so I'd be planning when, and how, to assassinate the target. On a side note, the mission automatically failed if we didn't complete it before the second son became the heir, for obvious reasons.

It was a considerable degree of faith to put in one such as me, and I was indeed honored. Since orders were orders, we set off at once, without delays or goodbyes. With a little over-reading in, he was training me up to be ready to leave the village on the shortest notice possible without complaint. Actually, that sounds scarily realistic.

We left the village behind us, speeding to the place called Tanzaku Gai.

**Authors Note: This one took a bit of time to churn out, holiday season and all, but I hope it's good enough for y'all.**

**Anyway, I didn't go too far into the fights, but I do wish that they at least interested you. As always, reviews are welcome.**


	15. Chapter 15, B-rank

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or Tanzaku Gai.**

**Load. Present. Chapter 15!**

Assassination brought up a whole host of moral issues like, 'what right do I have to end someone who probably doesn't deserve…' that's it, I've solved it. Everyone deserves to die, even me, for we have all done wrong.

So then, the rule of this dog-eat-dog place shall be… if one dies, they only got what they deserved. Of course, that doesn't mean I have the right to kill them, being just as worthy of execution. Still, the will to survive was strong in me, I wanted to live; I had goals.

Killing was my trade, but I hadn't done it in cold blood before, not really. Killing bandits and kidnappers in their beds was easily justifiable. Killing some no doubt rich father who hadn't really committed a crime was a little more challenging.

If I wanted to be successful, I needed to impress Orochimaru, make myself useful; too useful to use as his next body. I held no delusions that I could hold him off if he wanted to possess me. That meant my research in the field of chakra _had _to go further, to be proven right.

Of course, as with all research, it was important to not let the ideal end result cloud one's judgment. This was all too common in humanity, seeing only what they wanted to see, and I was no different.

I was eager for the work, but distinctly unready for the amount of time it would truly require. Even with my added age, the long drudge was something foreign to me, and by no means did I think it'd be solved in a day.

I didn't want to work, but I _did _want to know. And falling into the lazy pit was something I had promised myself not to do. Therefore, my experiments, such as they were, continued when I had the time.

Of course, this was all rather far from the main topic: assassination. I needed to find a way that pinned the least blame on the older son, who would automatically receive at least some suspicion.

First on the list was to casually observe both our client and target, so that we knew for sure who was dying and who lived at all costs. Orochimaru-sensei approved of this, so we set out. It was easy to get directions, so it didn't take two hours to complete this portion.

"I need to think." I informed my legendary teacher. And indeed I did, I needed to find a good way to kill the target.

Something that didn't look like a planned assassination would be best; a mysterious death on the street or a standard death on the road, bandits were so rampant these days. Still, we didn't exactly know when he'd be on the road next.

So, perhaps communist fanatics who want the rich merchants dead? It was a little incredible though, only one out of many gets targeted? Not happening. An insane criminal of legendary strength perhaps, it'd even create additional revenue for Konoha when they inevitably hired a team to investigate.

No, something that merits investigation is no good; suspicion is cast in the strangest directions in such cases.

Something standard, weren't there a good number of gangs in this town? Simple, kill the merchant, take the safe, make a break for it. I assume there was a safe or something.

First things first, we needed a traditional bandit mask, a black bag with holes for the eyes and mouth.

I explained my plan to Orochimaru and, after a moment of internal deliberation, he agreed. As was my right, I began to have second thoughts; still, this was the route I had chosen, I needed to go through with it.

That's a bull-headed way of thinking, saying something like 'I've already chosen, I won't go back' is naïve, and, more importantly, incredibly stupid. If I can spot a real error in my plan, I can begin to think of another.

Orochimaru and I walked out to the market, finding a shop where bags of all descriptions were sold.

I procured two black bags of suitable size, along with needle and thread of the same color. It wasn't professional, but I had confidence that even with inelastic bags we could pull it off.

I paid the cost to the shopkeeper after a moment of haggling. That was a convenient part of this world, cold retail wasn't in existence, haggling was always on option; since the owner was usually the one manning the shop.

Rough looking was the name of the game anyway; we didn't want to look like this was something we did every day. One-time thieves, that kind of thing. They were the hardest to find anyway, immediately discouraging cops.

You might think one-timers were easy, but think about it, they have no existing criminal record or description that could fit them, only if they mess up are they easy to find. Of course, the very hardest were the professionals who worked nearly their whole lives at it, never getting caught.

If I were to pick one, we'd be the latter, since we were indeed formally trained ninja; not that our target knew as much.

Like thieves in the night we would come and take a man's life. It wasn't morally upstanding, that was for sure. But, I'd acclimated to life in this world, I'd already taken many lives, one more in cold blood wouldn't faze me.

Getting our hands on blueprints of the house was not possible, and I absolutely hated wasting time, so it would go down tonight. Perhaps a bit rash, but sitting around never got ninja any favors.

We optimized our costumes for the rest of the day, not neglecting to eat. We couldn't go in armed to the teeth, one-time robbers and all. Kunai were common, and not just shinobi used them, so our weapons weren't exactly out of place.

At this point, appearing amateurish in our movements was the most essential thing. Since I assumed Orochimaru could do this, I turned to him.

"Sensei, please teach me how to act like a commoner." Rather than disliking when you asked for help, Orochimaru hated it when you needed help but were to prideful to ask for it. Of course, he was a busy man, so clearly defining want and need was important.

Still, Sensei liked me, so coaching me a little on how a first-time nervous little child thief would act wasn't outside what he was willing to do. It was a bit of a flaw in my plan; I was entirely too small, even though I, obviously, thought of myself as an adult.

Nevertheless, it wasn't too incriminating, so the plan went ahead.

Nightfall came quickly to the rather boisterous town of Tanzaku Gai, and the heavy nightlife began with unabated energy. I hated the so called 'nightlife', aside from a bit of cautious gambling. It did instill a certain love of gambling, the way Konoha taught its shinobi.

Probably related to why a lot of the major casinos are in the land of fire, but that's a conversation for another time.

Since our target was in a two-story house, he would clearly be on the second floor. I noted with intense disappointment that I had not thought to ask in exactly which room the man lived, minus one point. In any case, we needed to steal a ladder with which to break in directly. Knocking on the front door wasn't exactly prudent.

We came to our target's house, looking rather laughable in our black bags and gloves. Still, it'd be the perfect excuse to be clumsy robbers, something that was vital to my plan.

Orochimaru carefully placed the ladder next to a window, allowing me to cautiously climb it.

I looked in carefully, glancing in every conceivable direction. Seeing no one, I carefully began to pry at the window, sadly, it was locked. Well, it's not like a knife couldn't solve that. I drew a sharp kunai, sticking it in deeply where I knew the lock would be.

Once I'd, eh, _disengaged_ the lock I pried the window open, crawling in without a sound. Orochimaru followed quickly.

I looked around the room, noting with surprise that we'd infiltrated our client's room. No contact, we needed to get out of there. Since the man of the house was married, he'd probably be a little bit away, perhaps on the other side of the house.

We snuck outside into the hallway, relieved to see that there weren't anything like patrols. Well, I was relieved, Orochimaru was probably just bored, no one could tell at this point. To explain: Orochimaru almost always wore some form of poker face, but right now his face was totally hidden under a black bag.

We made our way to the room with the largest space between its door and the adjacent door, in other words, the biggest room. Fortunately, I guessed right, our target was asleep in his bed. Incidentally, his wife was right next to him.

First, I snuck to the window; braking the lock on it. Now to find something to smash.

I looked around the room, perfect, a vase. This clumsy thief would knock over a vase, alerting the whole house. Too bad for the dad, he was in the room and the frantic robbers killed him.

I nodded to my Sensei; then stumbled over the desk with the vase, artfully pushing down the fragile object. With incredible noise, a result of high-strung senses, the precious object broke. Orochimaru was already in motion, even as the man awoke yelling queries upon who had entered.

The unfortunate merchant didn't have a minute to live, his life-blood seeping into his shirt as we jumped out the window. Now for cleanup, we needed that ladder gone.

With all my speed I ran to the nigh-forgotten ladder, taking it away quietly as the guards raised a frightful ruckus behind us. All-in-all, unless some super detective comes, we should be fine. How could a super-detective find out you ask? The broken window's lock in the eldest son's room, still, even with that, it wouldn't be hard to think that the thieves just didn't expect anything in such a room.

All-in-all, we had been successful. The probability that they would investigate who had bought black bags recently wasn't nil, but even that would not be proof.

Tomorrow we would head back to the place called Konoha, back to the gilded chains of shinobi work.

Orochimaru and I turned in for the night, my heart gradually slowing down to normal as I drifted to sleep.

XXX

In the morning, I woke up again, full of life for the new day. Unlike some disreputable people, I was a morning person; not a full-blown one, but a morning person.

After a tasty breakfast it was easy to return to Konoha, though we had to spend a night under the stars.

Everyone seemed alright, though we hadn't been gone very long. It seemed Minato was out of town of his own first B-rank, however.

That night I realized something: Doujutsu users everywhere had committed a great sin; they had squandered the ponderous advantage they had been blessed with. At the heart, a doujutsu was something that allowed one to perceive chakra.

And by perception, it was possible to copy, I had proved this. Why then wasn't every Hyuuga using Ice techniques? Why weren't the Uchiha throwing around sand with just their minds?

They had developed a certain style sure, but they had then limited themselves to it. Mankind was a race of adaptation, while still feared, even the Uchiha were defeated a large portion of the time. Man had adapted to the current style, something new was needed to win.

It is said that war is the mother of invention, but I didn't agree. The mind is what is at the heart of invention; war is what makes governments crazy enough to fund the ideas. Truly, the idea of a nuclear bomb wasn't unheard of, but without the federal push, would it have gone anywhere so soon?

No.

Since I didn't want a war, though one was doubtlessly coming quickly, I had to invent cheap things. A small matter, really, since the only investment I needed was time and chakra.

I ate my breakfast with a vigor that I had lost in my old age, the drone of everyday life falling away from my ears. Today was a day of discovery, I could feel it. Nonetheless, I didn't want to get a high on expectations.

Fortunately, today I had a break from missions.

Let's start with something simple, Doton. Then combine it with something complex, Rasengan. Together, they made something that could be thrown.

It was far from perfect, so far that one might as well throw mud at the enemy. It wasn't the answer.

Instead, I made a super pointy football of earth it my hand. It was hard material, easy in the hand, perfect. With the help of chakra I threw my new projectile at a tree.

It went straight through, the rotational motion working like a drill. Truly, the power of chakra was great to let simple dirt go through a tree. Enhancing muscles was truly an art; spinning something with chakra was an art. And above both, using chakra to push on something was an art.

With these combined, a dirt-football could pierce even Konoha's wall someday.

It was a technique that could be dodged, one that took a few moments to prepare, but it was fresh.

Now for my next idea on a modified Rasengan. Quite simply, the idea was to use the Rasengan around a fist, this way it would work as an easy defense too.

It was possible to rip yourself apart with your own chakra, so this required caution. I was aware of the pitfalls; the technique would have fewer layers, making it weaker, the reach would be less, but only by a couple inches.

Compared to the ability to deflect anything with just my hands, it wasn't bad. Now, one might think, 'why not just use the normal Rasengan?', simple, it was harder to move something held within one's hand accurately than to move the hand.

First, I formed a normal Rasengan, cementing in my mind how it felt.

I took my jacket off; then I held out my right hand, fist clenched.

Sphere, not coating, unfortunately, the hand had something attached: the arm. Since I couldn't really have such momentous chakra inside my body like that, I needed a hole at the back of the technique.

I formed a planar Rasengan, it span around in front of my fist like a little shield. Maybe instead of a sphere, a cylinder without a lid?

I dispelled the technique, retracting my hand. I then held out both hands, forming a cylindrical Rasengan between them with minimal trouble. I added layers to it, both widening it and lengthening it, removing its center as I did so. I smiled as I repeated this process to the extent where I could fit my hand in.

With my mind I shifted the empty tube, still spinning violently, onto my left arm. If I was going to cripple myself I at least wanted to keep my dominant side.

The source of the chakra for the technique was now solely my left arm, making it much easier for the chakra to stay centered.

I grinned down at the blue defense, knowing very well that this could go straight through a person. Still, nothing was like confirmation, so I karate-chopped a training pole off midway with my new technique.

Slowly, carefully, I let the technique spin itself out, gazing silently at the slowly bleeding tiny wounds on my left arm.

I ignored it in the heat of the moment, but I clearly didn't have _absolute _control. Lucky I was; my arms weren't very big, just a little more and I really would have been a cripple, scary.

Adding a point to the end of the technique could come later, seriously.

I guess I really am different, inventing new techniques off the top of my head. I'll have to thank Minato someday for inventing the Rasengan, without that training I'd just be another guy trying and failing.

I looked up at the sun to gage the time, and was surprised by how much time it had taken, truly, exciting things make time fly. I went in to get washed up and for a meal, completing both without complications.

Now it was time for ice control. In this respect I didn't hope for immediate results, since it was a blood-line after-all. However, since convenient things like freezers existed, getting my hands on genuine ice was no problem.

All I had to do was play around with my control and study the chakra in Ice with my Sharingan. Still, getting the skill to control ice at home and forming my own in the field were very different matters. It was something I wanted to at least start work on though.

So I got an ice cube, inspecting it with my Sharingan. With this, it was easy to see the natures of chakra nearby. I brought some of my own chakra to the surface, attempting to get it to match to the ice.

As expected, I had no luck in the exercise. Well, I didn't learn earth manipulation in a minute, and Rome wasn't built in a day. Persevere.

I spent the rest of the day this way, always getting a new cube once turned to far to water. Water and ice had different signatures you see, so if the surface was coated with water, my research would be interrupted.

XXX

The next mornings were business as usual, picking up a mission with my sensei, completing it in however much time it required at minimum, then returning to my ice.

Many mornings passed this way, until thirty-four had passed. Over this time, my nature control of ice had progressed to the point where at lucky points I could make the cube move a little.

Chakra was a curious thing, once one learned a skill, one never forgot it. Perhaps one could push it back to the recesses of the mind, but the skill was not lost. Thus, once I learned how to control ice, no matter what I did, my chakra would still be able to respond and succeed with the task later.

Even memory loss didn't affect this it seemed. If books are to be trusted that is.

So, establishing dominance over your chakra in every area should be a goal for every shinobi. With that kind of skill, anything is possible, anywhere, and most importantly, anytime.

Nonetheless, my goal at the time was slightly more specific, how to gain consistent control over ice. To that end I practiced.

**XXX**

My delight was great as the ice cube soared through the air, propelled by nothing more than my chakra.

"What the?!"

"This one asks humbly for your forgiveness, Nii-sama."

"That was you, Nanashi?"

I nodded, bowing in apology once more.

"Why are you playing around with ice?"

I wagged my pointy finger at him, watching in glee at the look on his face as the ice cube wagged in sync in front of his eyes.

"How is this possible? A parlor trick?" He demanded.

"See for yourself." I'll admit, showing off my hidden skills felt good.

He activated his Sharingan in response to my prompting, his now-red eyes widening as he realized the reason.

"You're controlling it, with just chakra?"

"Nothing so simple, that would look something like this." I made a little platter of chakra, connected to my finger by a chakra string, and sent it over, letting the ice cube lay upon it.

I dispelled my absent minded creation; not knowing how much its very existence amazed him.

"Rather," I held up my finger, making it exude chakra that was the same as the chakra within ice.

"I don't get it."

"Look between my chakra and the ice."

He scowled in thought, "They're the same?"

"Yup. That's why I can control the ice, it responds to chakra that feels the same, curiously, chakra in living beings that have minds isn't so easy to manipulate." Because they have minds that control the chakra went unsaid.

Fugaku went on to ask the obvious question, "Can you do this for anything?"

"Of course not, this is a skill I went through many hours of mind-numbing boredom to acquire, I can't even create my own ice and I can't change the shape of the ice cube yet." What can I say; it's hard to change the shape of a solid thing while keeping it solid. Impossible really, you have to turn it into water and then re-harden it.

"It's still amazing little brother."

"Well, it's not bad sure; but with this it's easier to just grant blood-lines to people."

That's where Orochimaru and I differed; I created a way for any man to learn the blood-line skill, whereas he created a way to give blood-lines to any man. In scientific pride, I'd say my way was better.

"No, it's amazing. The Uchiha have been a clan for a long time, and no one has discovered a way to control ice."

I shrugged, "They just didn't think of it, or when they did, they gave up on it."

I got disheartened for a bit myself, only memories of previous successes kept me going.

Even with success, I wouldn't be much better than a diligent normal person. Let's be serious, in the time it took to learn how to move around a single ice cube, I could have learned an A-rank fire technique or more. So, while controlling ice without having the blood-line may seem great, it's all based on what I _could _have done.

Because for whatever I can do, someone else can do something greater. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained, this is the style I had chosen. Just because no one else has, does not make it infinitely superior; or even superior at all. Neither does it make it inferior.

I supposed to gain any greater control of ice, water manipulation would be necessary. Since this was not inside my ambitions at the time, I moved onto the gloriously useful sand. More than useful, sand was insanely versatile.

Without being a fluid like water, it was capable of doing pretty much anything water could combat-wise. Want soft ground? Quick sand. Want to go around enemy defenses? Just go ahead.

Yes, sand was truly the epitome of a good choice. It had failings, sure, but against anything but fire and wind melds, and water, it wasn't vulnerable. Even then, with a little extra chakra soaked sand could be overcome. Of course, the capability of flight wasn't really included in sand, but otherwise it was very nice.

Finding sand was actually harder than finding ice, but it was still incredibly easy.

Gathering some up was also simple, the hard part was syncing my chakra with the sand.

**XXX**

The next day I was sent out on another B-rank, a little different this time.

Orochimaru would be leading a group of chunin on some serious border patrol. It was a farce if I do say so myself; our route often lead fairly deep into Iwa territory, we were clearly scouts.

It was risky sure, but spies had established Iwa patrol routes already, supposedly we wouldn't even catch sight of them. Ever skeptical, I was hardly sure because of these rather empty promises. In fact, we'd be very lucky if we didn't slam right into a similar Iwa group.

After-all, that genius Orochimaru was being dispatched, we weren't being sent to change a peasants diapers. No, we were the van-guard of war, without a doubt, this was an early example of pre-war scouting.

In under three years for sure, men would fight and die at the word of their Kage. Their shadow, ordering them to death from security, it is the way of war. But I respected that, I'd played strategy games, all those years ago, and sent imaginary men to their imaginary deaths.

One could say, 'this is reality!', but is it really so very different? Weighing the options, risk and reward, long term benefits, it's all the exact same. And the stake is victory, victory by conquest; wonder wins aren't possible with shinobi after-all.

Our team had five chunin, including me. For this mission, everyone would be using a codename, not uncommon when it came to missions where hostile contact was a possibility. Konoha took security for families seriously.

I was 'Little', Orochimaru was 'Black', a male chunin with a scarred check, second in command, was 'Big', no doubt in reference to his above average size. Then came, 'Chick', a feisty blonde who wasn't happy with her codename, the last two were, 'Red', and 'Orange', fast friends who simply didn't have the talent or drive to ever make jonin.

Unsurprisingly, the hierarchy went like this, 'Black', 'Big', 'Little', 'Chick', 'Red', and finally, 'Orange'. Incidentally, Red's name had nothing to do with his color, and neither did Orange's; both were light-brown haired, medium build, cheerful fellows.

Rumors about me weren't unheard of, so I wouldn't be surprised if everyone knew my name, Black went without saying. Information wasn't my specialty, so I really didn't know anything about the group.

There was no way I had enough hot food for every meal for this large of a group, therefore I asked Black, "Are we waiting to get hot food or are we roughing it?"

"We're setting out in one hour, no exceptions."

Well, no way was I wasting money on food for these punks, but I didn't want to seem like a selfish brat, roughing it it was.

That meant I could pack extra kunai and such in my food scrolls, maybe I'd bring some fresh water, never knew when that'd be useful.

"Meeting spot, sir?" Big asked respectfully.

"North gate, be there or receive a demerit." Harsh, effective, that's my sensei alright.

I brought along a few liquid storage scrolls, filled to the very max with drinking water. I also brought two sets of camping supplies; one never knew when an additional companion would show up. On that note, one never knew when one'd lose a set of camping gear either.

Chick, Red, Orange, and Black were already present by the time I arrived, toting my diminutive bag of scrolls.

"You sure you got enough gear kid?" Orange asked skeptically.

"I'm sure," I smirked, "I'm an Uchiha." Gah, too funny, I ended up doubling over laughing at my own tone of voice.

Red raised a single eyebrow, "No one else gets the joke."

"Ignore the brat." Chick spoke up irritably.

"No, I'm glad you don't get the joke actually. Forgive me, I've been remiss, I am the one called Little, apprentice to he who is called Black," Codenames only for missions, very important.

"I am the superior chunin, Red." Red was a tan man, with brown eyes.

"Am I not greater? I am Orange." The man bowed with a little flourish of his hand, he was lighter in color, with dark brown eyes.

"Don't call me Chick brat." Her looks were good, but her temper was a massive blow in my estimation of her. Her hair, blonde and slightly curly, was shoulder length, her chest was moderate.

I took on my very best intelligent look, "You've been given that codename as a sort of test is my guess, a test to see if you can handle a little unpleasantness, a test to help you control your temper."

She narrowed her eyes at me, the grey orbs searching for deceit, "Alright." She answered finally.

At this point Big arrived, putting an end to our conversation.

"Good, you're all here, now let's get this straight, if I say quiet, it means quiet until I say so," Black ordered, "Move out."

We headed to the northwest, travelling up to the border with Grass in three days.

"We'll be moving through Grass territory to get to our next location, try to avoid any confrontation with Kusa Nin."

"Yes sir." The entire group answered.

It should be noted that I was actually wearing my head-band on this mission, though I disliked it greatly.

We passed through Grass's territory without incident; then moved on into the Land of Rock. It was a land with a fitting name, the tall grasses of Kusa giving way to hard, unforgiving earth with sparse growth.

It was a land with virtually no cover beyond a few boulders and lone trees. What on earth we were doing here was beyond me. I mean honestly, what did Konoha expect us to find?

Perhaps to climb a mountain that overlooked the famous Iwagakure. Or maybe we were there to investigate about a rumor of a hidden base? Plausible.

The entire group was rather tense as we ran along, minus Black of course, he was always calm it seemed. Unless something he cared about went terribly wrong, then his anger was fierce.

On the fourth day in Rock territory, my Sharingan spotted a group of Iwa Nin.

"Two O'clock, eight figures, presumably standard Iwa patrol."

"We're almost where we need to go, keep an eye out and continue." Black answered.

Our path was zigzagged, as if we were scanning the area, perhaps I was only brought along for my special sight? I looked ahead, finally seeing what we had come for.

It was a cave, but smoke was emerging from it, a tiny amount, something the fairly nearby hostile ninja would not even have a chance of seeing.

"A spy?"

"Quiet."

Quiet meant quiet, so quiet we were. We hastened over to the cave, where a genjutsu had been placed. How would I know you ask? The chakra was clearly unnatural.

"The flowers are blooming in Kumo." Black spoke to the air.

I had not disrupted the genjutsu, but neither had Orochimaru, which, of course, meant that we were in the presence of an ally.

"But in Kusa the winter is strong." A raspy male voice echoed through the cavern.

"Nonsense, there is spring in the grass." Black answered. Immediately, the genjutsu dispersed, letting the rest of the group see clearly who was there.

"Two years of spying on Iwa, I've got the full report right here."

"The Hokage thanks you for your work, and asks that you remain here another two years." Black took the rather thick folder from the bearded man.

"Never in question," The man was brown haired, with just the beginnings of grey hair throughout his scalp. He had the look one would expect of a man who lived years alone.

"We're done here team, move out."

We all nodded, following Black wordlessly out of the cave and back to the rocky surface of Iwa.

We made good time to the border with grass, but then met up with the most dreaded of trouble, Rock ninja.

"How truly interesting, a group of Konoha ninja wandering around in the Land of Rock, I think we should bring them to the Tsuchikage, no?"

"We should." The chunin under the obvious leader replied.

I signed to Black, 'What now'

'Kill'

All of us saw it, the most distinct sign in the Konoha sign language. The reason for this was easy to think of, if someone mistook a different order for 'Kill', very large problems could ensue.

"Orange, Red, take the leader!" Big yelled enthusiastically as he jumped at a small female.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Orochimaru cried, watching in delight as the confident Iwa Nin took on expressions of terror. Every ninja in the world had heard of the Densetsu no Sannin, and their legendary, exclusive, summons.

Chick singled out an ugly male with a deformed nose, and I hung back.

Glory in battle is great and all, but sniping is so much safer.

I used my Spinning Earth Football, patent pending, freely on the enemy, using my Sharingan to predict where my allies would be, so as to not hit them.

The group of Iwa Nin was large, nine chunin under a jonin. However, Black's Kunai Kage Bunshin and snake summons were easily enough to keep the five chunin fighting him on their toes.

One enemy was already down due to my football, and another had been swallowed whole by a snake.

Unfortunately, Orange and Red were totally incapable of winning against the leader, and were only hanging on because of my assistance.

Well, not for long. I began the sequence of hand-seals for the most powerful technique I knew. I made no errors as I sped through the hand-seals, filling up my lungs with fresh air to keep the technique burning.

"Orange, Red, heads up!" I cried in warning, "Katon: Firewall!" The compressed ball of flames came out of my mouth, just as Orange and Red disengaged.

The jonin's eyes widened, but he grinned as he sidestepped the technique by a hair. Fool.

An inferno went up, engulfing the jonin as the technique hit the ground and spread.

The jonin lived long enough to cuss once before he was no more. I wrinkled my face in disgust at the foul language; then turned my attention to the failing foes. Indeed, all men are weak to fire.

It seemed that no one besides me and Black, and his opponents, ever had a chance to use jutsu. The combat was simply too fast.

Chick had dispatched her opponent by tripping him with ninja wire; from there it was as simple as kunai to the skull. Big, unfortunately, was being pressured, somehow, by his little enemy.

"Kill all, sir?" I asked suggestively.

"Good plan, capture the girl." Ah, I pity her a little, cute little child genius becoming nothing more than an interrogation rat until whoever ran the place had squeezed everything out of her. Unless, of course she had a bloodline, then her fate was to become a baby maker, worse if I say so myself.

Orange and Red had minor wounds, nothing to keep them from continuing.

"Woman, I will make you drink of defeat." It was enough to draw her gaze for a moment, all I needed.

A couple seconds later and she let out a scream, just as the last of Orochimaru's terrified targets was swallowed by a large snake. Needless to say, the girl was as unconscious as Sakura after team training number one.

It must have been her weak spot, convenient.

"Incinerate?" I queried lowly

Black nodded, so I tossed the girl over to him, piling up the bodies with the help of Big, Orange, and Red. Chick was much too ladylike to touch a dead body you see.

I used Great Fireball twice on the stack, leaving nothing but ashes; we took away all the metal.

We returned to Konoha without incident, beyond, of course, a little screaming and complaining from our captive. She was so annoying I almost dunked her with one of my water scrolls.

**Authors Note: Hope you like it.**

**Reviews are welcome, suggestions, thoughts, questions, whatever.**

**Your Author and main character, Iamwhononofyouare.**


	16. Chapter 16, War I

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Chapter 16, War I**

After we had safely dropped off the girl at T&amp;I we continued to the mission desk, filing a surface report of an uneventful patrol. There Orochimaru dismissed us, going on by his lonesome to turn the spy's report in to Hiruzen.

It was already afternoon, so I returned home and caught up on rest.

In the morning, I left my room, eating breakfast slowly and without undue haste.

"So, how was border patrol?" Fugaku asked with a grin, already knowing that what I had been doing was not border patrol, such missions usually lasted weeks.

"Uneventful, no contact with suspicious persons of any sort, it's all in the report."

His smile grew broader, "Good to know you can keep a secret, you have today off?"

"Orochimaru-sensei did not say specifically, but we always take a day off after a mission that lasts longer than four days."

"Good, I'll teach you something."

"I am honored."

Since that was the case, Fugaku and I went over to the usual training ground. Usual for me at least, Nii-san hadn't really been here before as far as I knew.

"I am in your care."

"Indeed." He looked into my eyes, casting a genjutsu; I couldn't pin-point what exactly it was doing, so perhaps this was the object of the lesson?

Seriously!? Was he trying to kill me? I immediately jumped back and took a stance, but I didn't dispel the genjutsu. I also neglected to activate my Sharingan.

""Are you trying to kill me?"" Both of us asked at once.

""So this is what you are going to teach me.""

""Indeed.""

How did he make me? ""Nice trick.""

""I am honored to learn from you; however, this is getting unnerving."" Honestly, copying was half my trade, but this really did get to me.

"Alright," Fugaku then taught me the genjutsu and the method, taking up the whole morning. We went in for lunch at the appointed hour. All-in-all, I was pleased with my progress, and delighted that Nii-san was generous enough to teach me such a valuable technique.

"Once I have mastered how exactly it works, I shall teach you it: sand manipulation." I promised my older brother.

"Good. I look forward to it."

I smiled at him, "So do I."

With the rest of my afternoon free, I spent the time in the Uchiha training grounds with my sand, inching closer to my goal. It wasn't the most rewarding work; I spent months before I received real results, many months.

**Three Years Later**

Across the land and sea men were bubbling with grim excitement, nations were funding their villages like never before, and ninja were training for the day of their deaths.

All for one simple, gruesome, reason; war: The Third Shinobi World War.

For weeks now, skirmishes had been the name of the game, with the Kages each feeling out their neighbors. Finally, two days ago, Konoha had declared war with all the arrogance that their purported strength lent them.

On paper, Konoha was the strongest village. For real, their position on the map made them vulnerable. Surrounded on every side, going to the Land of Fire was the automatic choice of missing ninja. By incorporating them, Konoha had built itself up considerably. At the same time, everyone was jealous of its central location, which lent it the ability to attack anyone easily.

For example, Kumo could not attack Suna without passing through the Land of Fire, something Konoha would not stand for, obviously. A direct result of this was the mind-set of Konoha citizens, thinking 'we are the peace keepers'. No war was fought without the Land of Fire getting a say.

Fortunately for me, my sand manipulation had already been completed, and I humbly wore a jonin vest over my clothing. My hair was now long, nearing the mid-point of my back.

Orochimaru has been, and always shall be, my teacher, but my official apprenticeship was over.

Fugaku was nearly ready to take leadership of the clan upon himself, but the war had interrupted such things, so until the end of the war Father would remain as head. Unless he died for some reason or another, it is the way of life.

Nii-san's sand manipulation was coming slowly, but surely.

I wasn't being immediately zipped to the front, so I could only assume I didn't have enemies in high places. On a side note, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio was already in action, making a name for itself throughout the land.

At the time, I was standing in front of the famous Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage, sometimes called 'the Professor', in honor of his almost all-encompassing knowledge of all things ninja.

"So, Nanashi-kun, what do you think?"

"I think that with a little heroism, some cold hard sense, and proper cultivation of talent, Konoha will stand head and shoulders above the rest."

"You think that as it stands, Konoha will lose?" He inquired calmly.

"Certainly," There was no hesitation, no emotion to betray how unsettling speaking this way to _the _Hokage was for me.

"Hnn," He scrutinized me, "Then was I rash?"

"Perhaps, but you are clearly privy to a depth of information beyond my own humble self."

"In that case, what would you do?"

"Keep scouts at all our borders, as soon as our enemy comes, crush him with the full might of our army, and then vanquish his capital."

"You favor an initial defensive approach, why?"

"In war, the one who attacks loses more men; we need to keep our losses low, Hokage-sama."

"I'll certainly keep in mind your advice; now then, which mission do you want?" He laid the scrolls in front of me.

I picked up a B-ranked escort mission, "Are two persons required for this?"

"No, the client has a few non-shinobi escorts already."

"I'll take it, good-day and good fortune Hokage-sama."

He nodded silently in reply, watching me as I left the room, scroll in my hand.

In my years of work, I had encountered many types of clients, a large percentage looked down on me because of my age, most of them learned better by the end of the trip. But, recently, these types had dwindled to zero due to my now more impressive size.

I was still a boy, not yet filled out, but my full height had very nearly been reached.

That was beside the very interesting point, the point being: this client was the first in her genre.

"I paid for a B-rank mission, where are the rest of you?" A young female asked petulantly as I came before her, a servant stood beside her, fanning her beautiful, spoiled, face.

"My stature is lacking, and I am only one, but I assure you that my skills are enough to defeat at least three chunin." I was actually being modest, but a little humility was good for the soul. But let's not get arrogant, these are run-of-the-mill, no-name, faceless cannon-fodder I'm talking about.

"I don't believe you." She wore a pink kimono, decorated with leaves and flowers across its surface, the material was clearly expensive, and the embroidery masterful, truly a spoiled princess. Her hair was a sleek and shiny black, going straight back until its longest strands touched her thin waist.

"Is that so?" I asked, cocking my head a few degrees, "Permission to tell you a truth?"

"Granted," She clearly liked being asked for permission, gave her a sense of authority I supposed.

"I find you very pleasing to the eye."

"Humph," She made a happy-arrogant face, "Of course you do."

"Forgive me mi' lady, I have been remiss, I am Uchiha Nanashi."

"I suppose you've earned the right to hear my name, Hamasaki Harumi." She replied, her lack of faith in my power already dismissed from her mind.

"When does Hamasaki-sama wish to leave?"

"Asami, when are we leaving?" A middle-aged female servant presented herself with a small bow.

"We should leave early next morning, from the west gate."

The other relevant information was on the mission scroll, so I didn't bother asking about that.

"Does mi' lady need an escort for today?"

Harumi looked me over, "I shall allow you," She held her arm out.

I crossed my right arm over my body, inclining myself in a little bow before linking my arm with hers.

"Does mi' lady have a specific place in mind, or shall I guide her?" I asked politely.

"Guide me, and by all means don't disappoint." She pressed her lips together for a second.

I led her out into the sun and immediately a manservant lifted up a parasol, covering his mistress from the sun's rays.

"Quicker next time, I felt the heat." Harumi complained to the fellow, causing him to stumble over himself in his apologies. Even the parasol was expensive.

I wasn't exactly a connoisseur of anything, but I did do my best to show the demanding princess around to the very best Konoha had to offer. Which, of course, definitely included the view from the Hokage monument; much to her ladyship's hiking displeasure.

She didn't make it a quarter of the way up before her spoiled little legs gave out, "It's too far, carry me."

This was indeed a dilemma, I certainly couldn't physically carry her, I'd have to grab her, incredibly improper. Aha!

"Very well, Harumi-sama." I took out a scroll, unsealing its sandy contents.

"What's this about?" She asked in slight alarm.

"Please remain calm." With a flick of my wrist the sand moved, picking the girl up, "How is it?"

"This better not get my clothes dirty."

"Rest assured; my control is such that not even a single grain of sand shall remain upon you." I gave her a congenial smile.

With Harumi floating on a chair of sand I made the journey to the top. I had quickened my pace, so as to not run short on chakra. Once we had reached the top, my sand gently stood her up, allowing her to appreciate one of the finest views in the world.

At this point, the sun was just beginning to set, giving an even greater beauty to the scene.

"How is it?"

"Passable," She admitted, but I could see her real emotions, she clearly loved the view.

"If mi' lady is in Konoha again someday, I shall be happy to guide you up here once more."

"I'd like that." We appreciated the view in silence for a couple minutes, plenty of time to soak it all in.

"I'm hungry."

"Shall we take the short way down?"

"Short way?" She asked skeptically, "Don't try to molest me."

"Never my intention," I grinned mischievously and my sand wrapped around her.

"Put me down."

"That, indeed, is my intention." I walked off backwards from the cliff, relishing the look on her face as I fell beyond view. It didn't last long however, since she was pulled over the edge by her sand cocoon.

As I fell I transferred some of the sand from her over to me, slowing our descent with my control of the substance. Before long we gently hit the ground, the huge fall completed in the slowest time ever recorded. For the record, suicides, and accidents, did occur from the top of the monument, still, no railing or guard was put up.

My sand returned to its scroll. I turned to Hamasaki, "Did you like the short way?"

"No!" She yelled, "Never, ever, ever, do that again, I thought we were dead." She huffed at me.

"If Harumi-sama died, I should be happy to die with her." I smiled.

To my amazement, Harumi blushed, "Have you never encountered a man who flirts?" I asked blankly.

"No."

"I don't believe you; Harumi-sama is far too beautiful; every man in sight would want to talk with her."

"I've always been at home or surrounded by guards."

"Oh, then I am the first man to compliment Harumi-sama so? I am happy to have received such honor."

She made a face, turning away from me as she crossed her arms. I grinned at the action, cute. I'd be lying if I said I didn't find her attractive, but I knew in my heart that flirting was as far as I'd ever go with- probably anybody, such was the life of a dedicated ninja.

Well, it's not like I was in love or something either, she wouldn't be able to keep my love even if I was. Way too useless except as eye candy, not a good thing for a serious relationship. Still, a little flirtation to keep myself amused wasn't hurting anyone. Well, thinking that forever could hurt someone's feelings someday, better to keep things safe.

Professional, it described my way of life and thinking, eating and sleeping, talking and even movement. On the other hand, after this mission, recreation would be hard to come by for years, better to enjoy it.

"Now, I believe you were hungry?"

I waited a few seconds before a reply came, "Yes, you're paying," She paused, "Because you scared me back there." She explained hastily.

"I am not so poor that I would make a lady pay, shall I lead?"

All I got was a nod, but it was enough for me. I led her to the very best cuisine in Konoha that I had tasted, not very high end since I was such a penny pincher. Still, the food was good, if not exotic.

Making small talk was difficult at this point, at least for me, so we ate in silence.

"Where is mi' lady staying?" I asked after we had eaten our fill.

"Konoha's Five Star Inn."

"Ah, I know where it is." It was pretty much required for a jonin to know building locations within their own village. Since that was the case, I paid for the meal and escorted Hamasaki to the aforementioned inn.

XX

In the morning, I equipped my sword, a steel katana of decent make, not the best in the continent for sure, and set out to the west gate. Curiously enough, Harumi was headed to the capital of Suna, where the daimyo resided, not Sunagakure. Konoha wasn't hostile to Suna, but tensions were high with the advent of war, so caution and cooperation were the names of the game.

A palanquin was approaching when I arrived, carried by four sturdy looking cannon fodder; ten replacements surrounded the luxurious transport. They were armed with curved swords and wore light armor.

Asami stood by the vehicle, alerting me to the fact that this was indeed my client.

"I stand ready."

"Then let us set out."

The pace was painfully slow, ambushers would have days to prepare. Unfortunately for prospective bandits and murderers, I sent a shadow clone out to scout every morning and evening. There was a reason this lady had paid for a B-rank, not a much cheaper C-rank, and it wasn't because Suna was hotter than Kiri.

During travel, conversations were kept to a minimum, and once we came to an inn and stopped I rested immediately, so any further talks with Harumi were foregone.

On our third day in the desert, trouble occurred.

"Howwa!" A large group of ambushers leapt out of the sand, no wonder my clone didn't see them, "Hand over the girl and we'll spare your lives."

"Not negotiable, my mission is to protect her." I answered flatly.

"Then die!" The spokesman wielded a large bronze battle mace, three feet in length with an oval head. His minions used bows or crude swords, charging with all the abandon of fools. And fools they were, to think that they had the advantage in the desert.

I raised my arms, glowering at them as the very ground itself rose to crush the attackers.

"You fools! You thought the sand was your home? It is mine to control!" I roared in triumph as the un-trained foemen were swallowed like the grave, buried too far to for them to ever dig themselves out.

The trained, however, remained, "Monster! Only the container of the Ichibi can control sand!"

"Did not your own Kazekage invent a technique to mimic it? But I have done better."

The speaker was a brown-haired female missing-nin from Suna, "Impossible, no man can."

"Then I suppose that, in your opinion -that you've already stated-, I am, indeed, a monster."

"We're leaving!" She yelled to her ninja friends, and so they leapt away from the newest cemetery in the world. Unfortunately, I didn't capture one to question, or even deal with all the enemies, three stars.

"Let's continue." At my words the guards picked the palanquin back up and we moved on, the men giving me looks of fear. I didn't much care. I didn't think this would be the end of trouble; whoever hired those ninja would probably hire an A-ranked missing-nin and send them at me once more. That being said, scouting procedures went on, the clones being more vigilant this time.

Our journey continued, the palanquin moving at its painfully slow pace. During the night I also sent out clones to hunt, so that I would not run out of food. Harumi's food came from a wagon that followed at a slight distance.

On the second day after the attack, trouble again came, in a little bit less hostile form albeit.

"Who are you?" The leader of the Suna patrol asked, not bothering to be polite. My forehead protector was off, unfortunately.

"My apologies, I rarely wear my head-band, I'm from Konoha."

"Uh-huh, what's your mission?"

"To protect Hamasaki Harumi until she reaches the capital, she's in the palanquin."

"Hamasaki is it? You two, watch him." The tanned senior chunin commanded, going over to the now-grounded palanquin. Two young, equally tan, men came over to 'watch' me.

My trained ears easily heard the conversation between the leader and Harumi.

"You are Hamasaki Harumi?"

"Who's asking?" Harumi parted the curtain.

"I am, miss."

"Why?"

"Did you hire this jonin?"

"Yes, what's this all about, peon?"

The man scowled, but merely marked down the information on his clipboard, "Is he from Konoha?"

"And if he's not?" Ouch, don't be so rebellious Harumi-chan.

"Is he, or is he not?" He asked, seething.

"He is." She glowered at the man, well I assumed she did, form my angle I couldn't see her face.

"That'll do." He came back to me, "Your story checks out, make sure you check in with the office in the capital, or you'll be treated as a spy." He put his pen away.

"Of course, thank you sir."

He had already turned away, "Into formation, let's get this done you dune-turds." Such a rude, ill-spoken man, I was glad I didn't have to work with him.

"Are we not allowed to move forward? Quickly pick up the lady's palanquin." I ordered the still stationary guards who doubled as carriers.

We continued on our way, dabbing sweat away with unabated fervor until we reached the oasis that housed the capital. The mission said nothing to the effect, but I continued to escort Harumi until she reached her actual destination. As it happened, this destination was her widowed father's house. Apparently it was a classic case of the mom dying in childbirth and the father spoiling the child afterwards.

Well, she wasn't all bad. Since this was the conclusion of my mission I made to take my leave.

"Won't you stay to meet my father?"

"Then I shall come over this evening." It had been my intention to get out of the city right away, but with things the way they were I checked in at the Suna Shinobi Office. They gave me no trouble worth mentioning.

After that, I got myself a room in a mid-class hotel. Since I had nowhere else to visit I returned to the Hamasaki villa.

"Halt!" The guard called to me, "Name?"

"Uchiha Nanashi."

"Go in." He opened the gate for me.

The servants ushered me into the meeting room, where the head of the house received guests. Beside the older fellow was Harumi.

"Forgive my rudeness, but I am not aware of how I should call you." I began formally.

"Shouldn't it be father-in-law?" He grinned. Harumi looked away, pink gracing her face.

"I have made no such offer to Harumi-sama, or she to me." I answered, unruffled.

"Take a seat and a joke, I'm Hamasaki Keigo."

Contrary to my own home, chairs were set up for sitting rather than forcing everyone into seiza. Well, nothing foreign about that, I really was American after-all.

Keigo's fingers twitched as if he wanted to grab something but couldn't, or wouldn't. I took a slight sniff, ah, a smoker.

"So, why did my daughter call you over, Uchiha-san?"

"Nanashi, please. I am totally unaware of her reasoning; perhaps Harumi-sama herself could shed some light on the matter?"

She made an awkward face, "I, just, I don't know."

This time Keigo and I both grinned, "Indeed, young ones rarely know their own minds." Keigo said, hinting at something.

"Ah, just so," I replied noncommittally.

"Why don't you join us for dinner, Nanashi-san? I'd be glad to get to know you a little better."

A gave a small, polite, smile, "I'd be delighted."

"Then it's settled, it'll be ready in a half-hour."

In the mean-time, he and I played a friendly game of shogi, that I won by a small margin. Keigo's mind was sharp, but shinobi really train to be the best minds in the world, it was no surprise really.

We made small talk about such things as we could over dinner, mostly about Harumi's journey here. She had been visiting some rather distant relatives in the land of fire, but with the advent of war Keigo had recalled her. Dinner came and went, so I excused myself.

I narrowed my eyes after I entered the courtyard, "I know you're there."

Only silence greeted me, so I threw a kunai at the location, "Come out little spy."

The female ambusher from before came into the light at my command, "What do you want?" She asked, in pain from the wound my kunai had inflicted.

"The better question is what do _you_ want."

"Your mission was to escort her here, you're already done." Ah, the informal code, let assassin ninja kill your client once you're technically done. However, it was never my intention to follow such a foolhardy scheme.

"Well, I certainly could let you, but what am I getting?"

"You avoid a fight with us."

"Ah, but I can beat your group, if I kill you and take your heads to the girl's father, after I make a ruckus of our fight, how much of a bonus do you think he'll give me? 800 ryo? 600? Make me an offer." I exaggerated splendidly to milk them to the max.

The ninja held her side as it leaked blood from where my kunai landed, her face grimacing, "250."

"250? I might as well kill you now." I made to draw my weapon.

"Wait! Wait, we're only getting five-hundred for the mission, honest."

I was impressed with their client's pocket book to say the least, "Then you can surely afford to give me 425."

"300."

"400 or I end this right now."

"Alright, we'll get you the money."

The whole group warily came out at her low whistle, "Half now, half after we've done the deed."

They presented me with a bag of coins; I bit down on a random few just to check the authenticity, "Thanks, you've saved me the trouble of hunting you all down."

They adopted puzzled faces for only a moment before they caught my meaning, "You b-" The man's cry was cut off along with his head.

"I hate it when people swear." I commented dully as I cut down the next foe, "Intruders! They're after the young lady!" I yelled heroically.

"You scoundrel!" The female -presumed leader- yelled as she tried to run away, only to lose her brains to a well-placed SEF, or Spinning Earth Football.

A small man with light hair used a wind technique on me, but I dodged to the right with ease. Kunai were now flying towards me from the remaining five hostiles.

I exchanged blows with one of them, katana on kunai, before an opening presented itself and I ran him through. A burly man took his place before I could pull my sword back out, so I left it and engaged him in taijutsu.

He wasn't bad per se, but he really was no match for my Sharingan, in the end his neck was broken. At this point the rest of the group broke and ran; their morale zero. They however made the unfortunate decision to all run in the same direction.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin!" I cried, the solid clones of a single whirling star cutting down all of them with sheer numbers.

I removed a bandage from my pack, wrapping up my bleeding leg, good thing they weren't using poison. And then, of course, Keigo came out, he glanced at the dead bodies, then looked at me.

"It seems my enemies haven't given up, thank you."

"It was no trouble."

"You're bleeding."

"They may have been rusty from civilian assassination missions, but they were still ninja, of course they nicked me." My arms had a few skin-deep wounds, nothing you couldn't replicate by pulling briers over your skin.

"Don't just stand there, get his wounds cleaned up!" Keigo yelled to his servants, forcing the immobile things to actually start working. A man-servant came with alcohol and bandages, cleaning my wounds as I recounted my version of the affair to Keigo.

I wasn't such an honest man as to tell him of my broken 'deal' with the ninja, no one liked to hear about these things. I, naturally, tried to excuse myself and leave for my hotel, but Hamasaki-san would have none of it, so I stayed in the guestroom.

Come morning, I lifted my sore body up, dressing myself and heading down to the reception room. Keigo was already waiting for me, dressed slightly less regally as compared to the night before.

"So, friend, how was your sleep?" He asked quickly.

"It is my honor to be called friend by you, I slept well."

"No, it is my honor to call you friend, I'm glad; Harumi is quite alright, thanks to you."

"It's quite alright."

"No, you clearly went beyond the call of duty, indeed, I looked at the mission scroll last night, don't argue."

"Technically," I replied modestly.

"None of that now, how can I reward you?"

"I, I hate to turn you down, but I daresay I'm far too embarrassed to ask for anything." Indeed I was, a felt a bit guilty over my actions the night before, despite the incredible efficiency of it all.

"Speak up man."

"No, I am from a wealthy family myself; I am not so needy that I would ask for pay."

"Well, I don't want to insult you." He said frankly.

"Feel free to, I've always been the type to handle insults to my own person well enough."

Keigo sunk into his chair in thought, turning over ideas in his head no doubt, "Ah! You're a shinobi, yes?"

"Certainly."

"I'm well aware of how much each village rivals the next; I have something I can give you. Something you must never let anyone know I gave you."

That certainly piqued my interest, so with lowered voce I asked, "What is it?"

"The schematics and instructions for a ninja puppet, I'll need your word you'll only use it for yourself and your direct descendants, but I still think it's a fitting enough reward."

"I readily consent, may the Kazekage himself kill me if I break this promise."

"It's up in the attic; I'll be right down with it."

I couldn't even believe my luck; no one, outside the group themselves, knew exactly how puppeteers made their weapons, but now I would. With Konoha's love of honorability I'd surely get away with hoarding it to myself. Truly and assuredly, I was favored.

Keigo brought down a dusty scroll container, evidence of its reasonably long disuse.

"My father was a ninja, into the whole puppeteering thing." He disclosed as he set the cylinder down, checking its contents, "He fell in love with an heiress, my mother, and the rest is clear enough."

"Well, I shall have to thank him."

Keigo smiled a bit at that, "He never was home much, at least as far as I knew; I appreciate all he did for me more now than when he was alive; by far." He got a faraway look for a bit before he snapped himself out of it, "But you're not here to hear about such things."

"I actually enjoy a little nostalgia in my acquaintances every once in a while."

"Well, with my experience, I know you can't stay any longer."

"Thank you for understanding."

"So wait until you've eaten and said good-bye to my daughter, and then we'll see you off." Such a fellow, saying one thing and then half-contradicting himself.

"Of course."

Just then Harumi came down, all-dressed up as if to go out, "Where are you planning to go, court?" Keigo asked jokingly, causing the poor girl to blush.

"Well I think she looks quite nice." Ah, I'm so evil, playing with a girls feelings; my mom should give me a solid rap over the head.

She blushed a shade redder, "Thank you for the compliment."

"Well, I'll see that our cook gets to work." Keigo left us alone; a massive show of trust if I do say so myself. Well, perhaps not, he knew I couldn't endanger Konoha's reputation.

"I'll be leaving after breakfast." I broke the news tersely.

"Can't you stay?" She asked, already harrumphing at the as yet unspoken no.

"I'm afraid not mi' lady, duty calls." I gave a sly wink.

"Well it's not like I need you around anyway."

"Indeed not, my lady is a strong, independent girl, what need does she have for one such as me?"

"Don't tease!" She punched me in the gut lightly. Lightly for me anyway, from her expression that was pretty near full-force for her.

Nonetheless, I doubled over, hacking and coughing comically, enjoying her almost-panicked, regretful, face.

"Are you alright?" She asked, clearly worried over my well-being, face bended as if to look at mine and done-up hair presenting itself from a new angle.

In response I guffawed, "Too funny, you think something like that would hurt me?" I managed to say between my chuckles.

She became red-faced with anger at that, stomping on my foot in her fury. Hey, hey, violence is a no-go, -1.

"What is a man to do? I am a cripple with only one kidney now."

She glared at me fruitlessly, my amused expression mocking her. Ah well, that should clear up any feelings for me.

I sat down, still smiling, "So, do you enjoy life here?" I acted as if nothing had happened.

"Yes, it's nice." She answered, face still not composed.

"That's good then, shall we see if breakfast is ready?"

Hamasaki came in at that very moment, "They've already prepared things, come and eat."

We journeyed to a more humble room than the one we had eaten in last night, enjoying the simplicity of the morning, contrasting with Harumi's much more formal wear. We had a fun little meal, after which I said my good-byes and jumped away, heading back to Konoha.

I made it back to the village many times faster than I had left it, the trees greeting me as I once again came to the gates of Konoha.

"Name?" A gate-guard asked boredom evident.

"Jonin, Uchiha Nanashi, look sharp."

He paged through until he found Jonin; then looked through the list. Seemed security was up a bit since I left.

"Escort mission to?"

"Sand, daimyo's seat."

"Client?"

"Hamasaki Harumi."

"Scroll?"

"Here." I showed him the scroll, handing it over at his gimme motion; he then looked it over; making sure everything was in order.

"Alright then, make sure you check in with Hokage-sama, says here you're to report just as soon as you're back."

"Thank you then." I made my way to Hiruzen's office immediately.

"Uchiha Nanashi." I informed the secretary.

"Go in." Curious, to be so free was not normal for Sarutobi.

I opened the door and entered in, closing it behind me quietly.

"You wanted to see me, Hokage-sama?"

"Yes, things have started off rather worse than I hoped; you'll lead these teams," He retrieved two folders and handed them to me, "And harass, destroy, and defeat as many enemies as you can with minimal casualties. This is a largely discretionary mission, I've heard good reports about your intelligence, don't disappoint."

"I'll strive."

"Pay will be handed out directly proportional to how successful you are. I expect honesty on your report."

"I comprehend your meaning; I'll have each team member file an independent report."

"Good. Failure to bring back a single living team member will result in no pay, but you'll receive no negatives, these things happen."

"May our fires burn brightly inside, yet invisible."

"Why do you say that?" Sarutobi asked, slightly puzzled over the added words.

"If a ninja were as obvious a flame, would he not die instantly?"

"It's a different logic. Don't you think you're taking the fire too literally?"

I scrunched my brow in contemplation, "I suppose so." I said at length. In the first place, isn't a fire a stupid symbol? Fire needed to consume fuel to survive, yet Konoha sold itself to the world as a peace-loving village. At the same time, something that never moved, like rock, was a bad symbol; it implied no motion, one way or another.

Of all the villages, Iwa and Konoha had the worst symbols, just bad luck I guess.

"Think about the meaning, it's important." The Hokage advised me.

"I shall."

"Good luck, your team is already notified, round them up and set out within two days."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama."

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it, if you hated the time-skip… to bad I guess.**

**Reviews are, as always, completely, utterly, and without question, welcome. Excluding, of course, those horrible things called flames, concerns and even complaints aren't dismissed here.**

**Your author and hopefully-not-to-OP-main-character, **Iamwhononofyouare


	17. Chapter 17, War II

**Disclaimer: I, incidentally, don't own Naruto, or its characters. I am also making no money from this project.**

**Broke 100 Favs, thanks guys.**

**Warning to any remaining blood-haters, the following contains 'blood, bones, and organs mixing together horribly'** **somewhere in the narration, enjoy.**

**Chapter 17, War II**

**XXXXX**

I smirked as I looked through my team folders in the jonin lounge, sipping limeade. It seemed this would be a small reunion. I looked around the room then, gazing at veterans and newbies both, I, obviously, fall in the latter category.

I was fifteen, not thirty or some such thing. Still, the lounge generally had more occupants; the war really was cutting back the leisure hours. Heh, in a few months this room would probably be lucky to have two people in it.

The first casualties had already occurred while I was away, Konoha losing a good deal more men than Iwa. I supposed that was why I was being sent up with extra forces.

Well, lazing around had never been my style in this world. I swirled the last of my drink, swallowing it in one gulp.

"Don't die," An older jonin advised; his unscarred face a testament to his skills.

"I'll think about it." I replied easily as I left the room, heading out to round up my team.

First came Nakada Mizuki, a pale girl with more muscles than your average twenty year old, chunin. She had black hair that went a little beyond shoulder length.

Then was Saeki Momo, better known as 'Chick', also female, twenty-two; chunin.

From there it was males, beginning with Ogawa Daiki and Ogawa Mitsuo, both chunin, better known as Red and Orange, respectively.

After them came the newly minted chunin, Uchiha Isao, former classmate, he had a buzz-cut these days.

Yoneda Osamu, male, chunin, somewhat shorter than most, genjutsu specialist, his hair was a vibrant brown. He could use a little iryojutsu.

And finally, Adachi Ryota; liked to use dual tanto along with his lightning nature, chunin. Incidentally, he had blue hair, natural or unnatural, it didn't much matter. He was only two centimeters taller than Yoneda.

With me at their head, this group of misfits was known as Fighting Flame, my decision. I still had to figure out the meaning of Konoha's flame, I'd dismissed the academy's kid-version, I didn't trust that indoctrination camp farther than I could haul it.

It couldn't be the warm glow of friendship; that was better represented by red-hot iron. It was perhaps a misrepresentation?

Of course! Konoha used the likeable aspect of flame, warmth, protection, and comfort. But inside, it meant consumption, and destruction, unquenchable fury. Still, that didn't seem like something Hiruzen would support.

But then, was it not the point? Even its own people, even me, have been convinced so far that even the idea of the other meaning is far from us. So far that even fan-fiction authors were deceived? Who knows, the world I lived in, this one, didn't work quite like a shounen manga anymore.

And let's not get into a tangent on why I'm even here, that'll lead to stupidity extraordinaire.

Back to the fire, maybe the flame was a front; the real meaning was what was behind it, the wood that was burnt. The wood that was burnt, that is the meaning, do not forget those who have sacrificed themselves to keep the flame alive. Honor their sacrifice by making your own; everyone chips in, so that no one log bears the full brunt.

How profound, was this the reason Hashirama chose a fire to represent a village, hidden in wood? Very deep, I found a new respect for the man that day.

Let's take it a step further; since we all must chip in, everyone gets burned. Not very attractive, the fire is Konoha, supported by the death and maiming of its heroes, the logs.

But is this not the harsh reality of life? An idealist is only a dreamer, one must be burned for his legacy to continue; there is no memory without sacrifice. And so by remembering the sacrifices of our fathers may we not be ashamed to sacrifice ourselves!

I could hear the words, spoken from a podium in front of an applauding crowd, this was it, the true meaning, I thought.

"Team!" I addressed my newly formed team.

"Hai!"

"I am Uchiha Nanashi, as I'm sure you know," Since I'd already introduced myself to this bunch one-by-one after-all, "And I'll be leading you the best I can. My word is supreme, and once we're committed, we're committed, but before then please feel free to express any concerns over my plans." I wasn't exactly exuding confidence here, but there was a reason, this was the largest group I'd ever lead, and the most dangerous mission I'd ever been on.

"Some of you have previous acquaintance with me, some of you haven't. But I expect you all to realize that fighting amongst ourselves isn't what the Hokage has sent us out to do." Reminding these idiots of simple facts was a must.

"I won't say let's go get glory." I gazed into their eyes with all the intensity of a stern colonel, "Because that is not what we're going out to do. Glory and recklessness are not to be your driving force, teamwork and cold, hard, sense is."

"Now, I'm not here to waste your time, or mine, let's go and come back alive."

With these words we set out to the northwest, heading to the conflict zone. The ravage of war hadn't reaped anywhere near all it would, but burnt out buildings still existed, along with empty villages and deserted fields.

We met up with Konoha's forces in the region, led by a certain, not yet dead, very famous figure, Hatake Sakumo. This was probably only weeks from his disastrous mission, culminating in his suicide; unless my advice had changed the missions handed out by the Hokage, maybe he was already safe.

Still, he was certainly a man that projected his aura, covering the area with a sense of reliable power. It was no question that the Hatake clan head was a candidate for successor to the hat.

Nevertheless, this was a discretionary mission, even Sakumo didn't have jurisdiction over my forces. I obviously needed the relevant information he was privy to, however.

"Uchiha Nanashi, on a harass mission, I'm requesting information on enemy positions, possible and confirmed."

His lieutenant handed the information over without trouble, so I gratefully accepted it.

"If enemy food storages or re-supply routes are known I'd be glad to receive the information."

"In the folder you've got." Hatake informed in monotone. I sped-read it, handing it back after my Sharingan memorized the words.

"I'll bring information if it becomes known, at the soonest convenience."

"Good, I won't keep you, Uchiha-san."

"Good fortune, sir." I excused myself with these words, returning to my team. The group was just finished cooking lunch, so I helped myself to a portion, with permission from Nakada, the cook of the day.

It wasn't bad at all if I do say so myself.

"Bed down, I'm taking first watch," I laid the order of who would watch when out verbally, allowing the group to drift to sleep. We camped slightly apart from the main force, somewhat west of their position.

When my hour and ten minutes were up I woke Osamu, handing over the duty to him with unspoken words. That night there were no alarms, the Iwa ninja a couple miles off not trying anything.

Daiki tried to wake me, but my trained senses were already alert.

"Up! I don't like laziness." I called to my team, forcing the not-so-morning people among them to wake up. This included Momo, Isao, and Ryota, the bunch of them were rather heavy sleepers, bringing shame to my team.

I finally noticed it, but Isao didn't like having to work under me, despite his in every way inferior station. I guess he was jealous. Still, not liking your commanding officer didn't get you special treatment, I ignored it in deed, but in my mind I kept it.

After breakfast I again spoke, "Follow me, and nothing above hushed voices, keep your ears and eyes out, this is the Land of Fire, but rocks are everywhere."

Our entire camp was already loaded into storage scrolls, so we headed out like the grave, silent.

I wanted to flank, so we went the long way around, swinging around the main enemy encampment. A genin team that, for whatever reason, didn't have their sensei or any sort of support was easily silenced, the careless kids dying without even knowing we were there.

I had no idea why Iwa was sending out its genin, but easy prey were easy prey, so I wasn't complaining.

The trees gave way to long grass and other plants, some of them highly toxic, as we entered into Kusa territory. This was where the fighting had been done a week ago, before Konoha was pushed back into its own land.

Both armies had avoided Kusagakure itself, but were not shy about marching and fighting in the outlying fields. Now was the time to be cautious, Iwa ninja loved hiding underground, so a surprise attack wasn't anywhere near out of the question.

Still, we encountered nothing, nothing at all.

I didn't like it, "I feel this is a trap, you guys?"

A couple shrugged, but the rest nodded. I turned on my Sharingan, scanning the area for anything… there!

I looked again, eyes widening momentarily as I appreciated just what it was. An earthen spear, highly saturated in chakra was arching towards us. There was no question in my vision that it had explosive tags on its end.

Well, no one ever said it had to make it.

I formed a SEF, sending the thing straight at the offending spear; it successfully dismantled the technique, my superior jutsu beating the spear out.

At this point, the explosive tags detonated harmlessly in the middle of the field, but this was not the end.

From every conceivable direction, Iwa ninja rose from the ground, brandishing weapons of various size and quality.

"Tch," I gave my commentary flatly, unsealing my sand, "We're running, well flying, away," I stated, my sand scooping up everyone on the team.

Flight was taxing; it took quite a bit more chakra to sustain all this weight. Nonetheless, dying was out of the question.

Jutsu of every make, along with kunai and even arrows, assaulted our transport. But it was not an idle passenger plane; the sand itself swatted away attack, the ninja onboard dodging the ones it missed.

Unfortunately, the speed with which I could accelerate wasn't much faster than our pursuers. But then again, getting clear away with the sand had never been my intention.

Once we had a good hundred and twenty meters lead, I had the sand set us down, my chakra stores already taxed nearly to the max, "Run!" I ordered, so we continued running in the same direction, the shouts of our pursuers audible.

Once we were back in the forest, we climbed trees, hiding ourselves in the very tops just as our enemies entered the shadowy glade. I was careful to keep my chakra hidden as best I could, who knew if they had sensors or not.

"We'll never find them now," A smallish man commented to his much more fearsome companion.

He was a big fellow, scars and unnatural white hairs adorning his features.

"- tree huggers just love to hide in the forest, I suppose we won't."

A trumpeter sounded, recalling the force to its leader. Now they were together I could fully appreciate their number, a little over forty men and women with Iwa head-bands were present.

The leader checked over each and every one of them, making sure each was not a spy.

"Failure, we're heading back."

They all left the forest, heading back the way they came. All except one, the small lieutenant hid under the ground. Unfortunately, not all on my team caught it, and the Ogawas slipped down, their landings making sufficient vibration for the man to feel.

I leapt down, a portion of the ground itself greeting me as I formed a SEF. The man sprang out of the ground with a yell, swinging so as to slice Mitsuo in half. The fellow was forced to back off or die as my projectile tore through the air, aiming to leave him heartless.

He cursed as he slipped under the ground once more.

I motioned to my team, and the lot of them went back into the trees, just above the ground. I drew my katana, leaping down to the ground, exhaustion forgotten.

I was already turning, prepared to finish the Iwa-nin with an Iaido strike. He instead grabbed my ankle, attempting to pull me down back with him.

However, my own Doton was good enough, so I forced him to forget it or lose his hands, the earth around his wrists sharpening. He got off with only a little nick, and I got off with having to pull my feet out of the dirt.

The footsteps of the Iwa forces were already audible, so I stabbed my sword into the ground where he had disappeared, and was rewarded with a blood-stained blade. I grinned viciously as I ordered my team to run.

I formed a huge earthen wall with the last of my chakra, blocking the way as the Iwa ninja arrived.

My vision swam as I lost consciousness, the world turning black as I mentally bemoaned my fate.

**XXX**

I blinked as I woke up, looking into the eyes of whoever was above me. Strange, why was I lying down? Iwa sure did treat its prisoners well.

I blinked again, wait. That face, that blonde hair, "Hey Chick."

She slapped me for that one, "You guys got me out of there huh?" I thought for a bit, "Thanks. Did everyone make it?"

"Yup, we're all as alive as a whale in the water." Ryota answered easily, his blue hair swaying in the wind.

I pondered over the new idiom, "That doesn't reassure me; whales can be in the water, yet dead."

He rubbed his skull ruefully, "And here I thought it sounded cool."

"You remind me of myself." I told him, my mind still not fully present.

His face contorted as he raised an eyebrow, lowering the other one as he did so, "Me and you? I don't think so man."

"Well, just a little; but that was a long time ago. Since the mood is light, I'm guessing we did get away."

"Thanks to your earth wall." Mizuki added in.

"That's good then," I get no money if I die or you all die, can't have that.

"What's the plan from here?" Osamu asked, looking somewhat concerned.

"Once I've fully recovered, continue, this isn't the end of our operations; unless you all have other news of note."

They shook their heads, confirming my suspicion that I hadn't been out very long. Still, it didn't hurt to ask, "How long was I out?"

"A couple days, you recovered pretty fast." Momo answered.

"That's good, I'd hate to make you guys think I'm a heavy sleeper," I jabbed playfully, smiling.

Saeki's face contorted for a second, but the rest of that group gave no response that was visible. The non-heavies cracked grins for the most part, amused. Well, it was good to be joking among teammates and friends rather than resisting interrogation, which is what I expected.

I used a bit of my chakra, feeling out how much I had yet to recover. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my stores were almost totally full, no doubt a result of my almost continuous use of chakra.

It was a fact; whenever my chakra was full I was always using some kind of technique or other. It resulted in a large appetite and slim figure, unsurprisingly.

We were outdoors, so gauging that the time was around noon was no trouble.

"Well, I'm almost ready." I formed earthen gloves over my hands to demonstrate, a small use of Doton I invented when I was bored. With skill, it resulted in a caestus effect, damaging enemies much more than a standard punch. Why only with skill? Because if the solidity of the dirt was constant one took almost as much damage as the opponent, pulverizing one's own hands, but by making the ground in the interior soft and the exterior hard and spiky…

It was bloody, bloody good.

I modified the gloves into the most vicious form I knew, getting up and throwing some punches at the air.

"Looks painful," Daiki offered, clearly hoping to never be a victim of the technique.

"It's useful, good for building muscle too." Just add a little extra dirt and the weight goes way up, forcing the entire punch mechanism to beef up.

Compared to the SEF, it wasn't something I used as often, but when things came to taijutsu, having a modifiable glove was huge. Modifiable in the middle of combat no less, if the punch didn't reach; one could extend a needle-like protrusion, spearing the enemy painfully. It was useful, something to keep battle ready.

We ate lunch; I didn't talk much, preferring to contemplate on what action our team had best take next. So far things had been going poorly; we'd been here two or three days and virtually nothing had been accomplished.

Beyond... "Has one of you informed Hatake-san about our encounter?"

"No." They answered after looking at each other.

I didn't know where we were relative to him, so that was a large problem.

"Well he needs to know, it was a significant force."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Does anyone know where we are?"

No one did, it wasn't pleasant; it could be that this force was part of the existing Iwa army, but it might be a separate or even flanking force, meant to strike from behind. It wasn't something to leave unchecked.

What was more surprising was the fact that we hadn't been discovered. I activated my Sharingan briefly, making sure this wasn't all an illusion. It wasn't, this was very real.

We headed south to the nearest town, from there it was simply a matter of learning its name and reorienting myself, I had the map memorized after-all. By the following noon we had arrived at the location of Hatake's camp.

"We encountered an ambush, forty-three Iwa-nin hid under the ground, once we had reached the center of their ring they revealed themselves."

"And how did you escape?"

"We flew out on my sand, I made a huge earth wall, and the rest of my team carried me out. That's in brief."

"I noticed, congratulations on making it out of there, I assume you have something more I should know?"

"No. I merely came to inform you of this rather large enemy force, in case they're new around here." I explained the disposition and appearance of the leader, Hatake taking notes as I did so.

"Yes, they're new, thank you for bringing this information to me," He paused, "And may your fires burn brightly."

"Of course; I'll take my leave," I excused myself politely, heading back to where the rest of my team awaited. The team wasn't on high alert, if the way they were all lying down or otherwise resting was anything to go by.

Well, Ryota was leaning against a tree, but he was at least carving on a piece of wood, crafting it into some unintelligible shape. I made my way over, leaning against the large tree right beside him, silently watching him work.

After five minutes he finally cracked, "What do you want?" Adachi asked, turning to me while stowing his tanto.

"Hnn, perhaps I want something from you?"

"That's what I'm saying man, what is it you want?"

"Perhaps I want nothing from you?"

"Then why are you so close?" He asked coolly.

"I just want to be your friend, please be my friend!" I half-bowed as I made my joke.

His jaw dropped a little, "So this is why I remind you of yourself?" Now that I could appreciate him a little more I realized just how different my past self had been, but it was irrelevant.

"Who knew I had such an immature side?" I grinned, favoring the right side of my mouth as I did so, "Anyway, how do you feel about this mission?"

"Gathering morale levels and such? Heh," He pulled out his tanto again, returning to his carving as he spoke, "I don't really care, one way or the other, but you expected that, didn't you?" He faced me briefly to gauge my facial reaction.

"I did. You give off the aura of a carefree individual; or at least someone who tries to be carefree."

"I do try, it's hard not to."

"You have to devote energies to something after-all, why not to carelessness? It's a worldview I suppose."

"Well, do you know the difference between a dead man and a live man?"

"Enlighten me."

"A dead man is a man who achieved life."

"Hnn," I thought on it for a minute, "What do you mean by that?"

"If he was never alive, he couldn't be dead."

"So his death validates the fact that he was ever alive, interesting." I didn't agree, but I understood it.

"But then, you didn't come here to learn a little philosophy did you?"

"Not really, I just wanted conversation to be honest, even a man like me craves company."

"How reassuring."

I didn't really know what to say from there, so I lay down and rested. The time passed, so I made figures, shapes, and all manner of anything I could remember from my previous world with Doton.

Most ninja used only prescribed techniques, which resulted in less creativity; I preferred to focus on control to the extent where hand-seals weren't needed for small stuff. Something like a field of spikes still took proper hand-signs though.

Nonetheless, this left me in a state were playing around making stuff like sand castles on a whim was easy. I didn't squander this creative license, in my humble opinion.

Often useful ideas sprung from useless ones; a what if question became a how question, a passing fancy became reality. Whatever was perceived to be interesting was pursued in a manner proportional to the interest it held; this is the way of mankind.

This time I didn't experience some kind of breakthrough, merely dotting the area around me with random stuff.

Finally, it was time for the evening meal, so everyone got up and contributed, each in his own way. Fortunately for my team, water was never an issue, as long as we visited a river or creek every two weeks.

We slept uneventfully, taking watches like good ninja always do.

After breakfast things were simple, follow me. We once again set off, ready to wreak havoc on any Iwa-nin we found.

It wasn't long before we spotted an advance picket, my Sharingan seeing them before they could see us.

Stealthily we advanced, inching forward with ninja skills. We were only twenty feet from them before we were spotted.

I immediately SEFed the man who raised the alarm, his cry of warning incomplete as he fell, his lungs destroyed. He was in a pair, but Ryota zapped the other one's heart with a lightning-coated tanto.

The yell, brief as it was, was enough to alert the entire camp, which was a good fifteen meters from our current position atop the dead bodies.

I pulled out explosive tags of my own making, attaching them to SEFs as I bombarded the whole place. Killed: 5, Wounded: 21. This group was the same one we had ran from before, but with surprise on my side it wasn't unreasonable for our rather elite force to be victorious.

"So you're the one who killed Oda."

"That's me," I smirked annoyingly at him, preparing a rather invisible technique as I did so, "You can call me, Uchiha Nanashi." I flicked my wrist towards him and the shinobi behind him.

It was a miniature version of my favorite: Spinning Earth Football, without ultimate precision it was worthless, but if the heart was corrupted, even a little, death was not far off.

The jonin's eyes widened, "Duck!"

His warning came too late for all but the most alert of them, the rest sinking to the ground as tiny holes in their chests seeped blood profusely. I schooled my expression as war gloves made of hardened earth formed over my hands, the very ground leaping up to coat them.

"Engage," I ordered blankly to my team, leaving them to fight against the now much more even enemy force.

"Die!" He drew kunai, hurling them at me as he kept his distance, clearly not interested in feeling if my punches hurt. Still, it was his mistake; the fool looked into my eyes of all things.

I implanted into his mind the idea that it would be smart to teach this brat a lesson, so on he came, into my waiting hands. It was nice to be able to slightly hypnotize the enemy, but one couldn't take it too far or else they would break free.

The man clearly was good at taijutsu; his strikes were forceful and accurate. He didn't use a style I recognized, so I dodged him for a little while, gauging that my team was fine; the purpose? To copy and assimilate his style of course.

"I think I get the idea." I finally told the man, making the come at me gesture.

""DIE!"" It shook him slightly, the way I yelled at the same time, the same way. But he didn't make jonin by getting his mind twisted by opponents; he continued his assault, his eyes widening as he saw his own style in my moves.

""How? Even if you copied it you should be losing."" Ah, but you see my good man; I can also predict where your moves go, so my stances and such don't _have _to be better.

He was already bleeding from a couple of hits I'd landed, but from there everything was downhill for him. He was confused, and confusion inhibits everything, so while he couldn't understand how I was winning I won all the easier.

The fight ended as I slammed my fist into his gut with serrated knives as my knuckles, blood coating the earthen killers. I allowed the gloves to fall back to earth, drawing my katana.

A blow, parried, another, barely blocked, and boom, another dead enemy. The process repeated itself as I finished off the Iwa-nin. Finally, the last enemy was dead, those who ran facing death in the form of dirt projectiles.

I looked over myself and my team, Osamu was dead, Momo had lost a finger, and Daiki had only his left ear. It was unfortunate, to lose our only medic, but I bandaged up my team's wounds as best I could.

I counted the bodies, only thirty-two; the rest must have been out. It was a victory, a huge victory; I was once again impressed with the difference between those weak and those strong. If one was even a slight bit better victory was complete without a single wound.

The enemy had made one mistake, they didn't gang up on me, allowing my superior skills to finish them off one-by-one; it'd been a massive blunder. If they had focused on me, winning might have been possible, even if I had to fight two guys instead of one they could have finished off the rest of my team with the excess time.

Let me make it clear, it's much harder to fight against two than one; reason? Killing blows are often prevented by the other guy, and back and forth. In this way the fight lasts around seven times as long, not something healthy in this situation.

I blamed myself a little for taking time to copy the jonin's style while Yoneda fought and died, but oh well, these things happen. It wasn't something to get depressed about, and certainly not some strange form of character development.

We piled all the bodies, taking the head-bands before cremating the remains, no one needed to know how they died.

Our depleted forces returned to the main base, camping inside of it this time. I wrote up the first section of my report that very night. The rest of my team, beyond Mizuki and Isao, were in no condition to continue the fight. It was for this reason that I intended to send them home the next day.

Unfortunately for that plan, the Rocks weren't happy about our victory, and chose dawn to attack the camp. All was chaos as Iwa-nin poured in, the numbers greater than estimated, not very surprising, it was easy to reinforce in a couple days only.

I put on my head-band, the identification very necessary to avoid friendly fire.

I drew my sword, leaving its scabbard inside my tent. I cut down an Iwa ninja, just a boy. Genin; seriously reckless, how crazy about winning was Iwagakure to send cannon fodder at us?

I guess they had a very real strong live weak die policy or something, or else their genin weren't actually too horrible? Well, it made no difference to me, enemies die.

Personal combat and group fights broke out everywhere, dirty tricks and honorable duels both making themselves known. The ground itself rose up and killed men; there was no lack of light, for the signature fire nature of Konoha was used freely and fiercely by man and woman alike.

I came upon a remarkable man, dead bodies, all clothed in Konoha garb, around his bloody frame. But the blood was not his, his body was unwounded, scars from years past were the only evidence he'd ever been touched.

"I see you've been having fun."

He growled back at me, as if he were only a beast and not a man.

"Some experiment gone wrong? I wouldn't be surprised, but I like ending such pitiful existences." I stared at him fearlessly, "Come!"

I charged, my blade held ready, trailing behind me. With a whistle my blade sliced through the air, cutting nothing larger than dust.

I formed a spiky earthen glove over my left hand, waging war upon the speechless being in front of me with refined skill.

The thing was unpredictable, there being no pattern for my analytical brain to latch on to. He was the first to land a blow, finger-nails slicing my right arm a little. But these were _nails,_ made of metal and implanted into his very fingers, the tips of which had been chopped off to accommodate this grotesque modification.

I supposed it meant he couldn't use techniques, or he was too dangerous if he could. But I was not a Sannin's prime student in name only.

I let my caestus fall to the ground, immediately replacing it with a large amount of mini-SEFs. The round balls of rotational piercing went right through his vest, wreaking havoc upon the creature's impressive body. My opponent staggered, the thirty-some wounds confusing him. In that split-second of weakness I ran him through the heart.

But he was not an engineered war-man for nothing either, he left four bloody marks on my back, in addition to the ones my arm already harbored.

It was painful, and the bloody things probably had all manner of diseases, I'd need to see a medic once we'd won. I unsealed my sand, ready to go all out.

"Fight me if you dare!" I yelled from the highest point I could find nearby, chakra enhancing my voice tremendously. Shinobi from each side obliged, wondering who was so confident as to request death.

In return for their bravery they were crushed, blood, bones and organs mixing together horribly. I, of course, reserved this fate for Iwa-nin, letting friendlies off. Many average ninja challenged me, until they were convinced that even in a group they were incapable.

At that point elite ninja, jonin and elite jonin, made their way to combat me. I was not so foolish as to fight a group of nearly equal ninja alone, so I ran; curses and yells of hatred booing me off.

A running battle ensued, "Die you cowardly monster!"

"Only a fool fights when death is certain!" I called back, foolishly damaged by the accusation of cowardice. I was a coward, I'd already accepted that.

I turned in the air as I jumped forward, facing my three pursuers, "Shuriken Kage Bunshin!" A hail of very real shuriken forced them to detour slightly, giving me some more lead.

Unfortunately, these guys could throw stuff quite accurately, so I had to constantly zigzag or die an inglorious death, courtesy of a kunai to the back of my skull. On the other hand, help was not far off; Sakumo himself loomed on the horizon fighting off a great number of enemies with his elite forces.

As I arrived on this, the main field of battle, I turned and greeted my opponents with a hail of mini-SEFs, causing blood to ooze from insignificant wounds, the more dangerous locations skillfully covered. I did not neglect to rid two Konoha-nin of their opponents, freeing up some help for myself.

"Katon: Phoenix Sage Fire!" I made my struggle obvious with a fire technique, causing my newest helper to glace over and get the idea.

In the mean-time, my homing flames forced the Iwa jonin to reconsider a headlong charge.

"Coward!" One yelled, too unintelligent to come up with a more hurtful taunt.

"Yes, yes, coward. But if the coward wins, who can say he is in the wrong?" I faced off against the noisy one; letting the others get handled by their opponents. Now I began to feel the exhaustion and blood-loss, my vision kept clear only through will-power.

""I refuse to lose."" We spoke as one.

""I will not be defeated by one such as you!"" He glared at my tomoe like a fool, ""WHAT?!"" His vision blacked for a second, allowing me to slash his chest once. Blood rushed from the wound, the pain weakening further.

He staggered, struggling through hand-seals for a technique, but a SEF blew his head off before he could finish. I engaged the next one, finishing him quickly enough with the help of my ally, the three of us easily outmatched the one remaining of the little pursuit group.

The two then returned to the fight, but I dragged my somewhat battered, but mostly just weakened, body off the field, passing out in the long grass of Kusa.

XXXX

**Authors Note: It's me, wishing you had a very wonderful January, but more importantly, wishing you liked chapter 17 of my story: As a Ninja.**

**If you liked the fight scenes, yay! If not, feel free to leave a review giving some sort of explanation, just ignoring a minor dislike is fine too.**

**In case anyone hasn't noticed, after the time skip I've been writing in a somewhat summary-like style, this may continue or change, depending on my mood.**

**Review, fav, follow, quit, whatever.**

**Your most sincere author, **Iamwhononofyouare


	18. Chapter 18, War III

**Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, for even an hour, I'd let you know.**

**Chapter 18, War III, Home Sweet Home**

I woke up, aching, and throbbing where I had been cut. I was somewhat dizzy, a product of blood-loss, very thirsty, and quite hungry. So I unsealed solutions to all the problems, eating and drinking while I took a single blood pill.

I applied disinfectant to my wounds, taking a general supplement that was intended to help the immune system. I had forgotten something, but what?

My team, I realized with a pit in my stomach, if they were all dead… one of them needed to be alive. I demanded it. But in all that chaos? Measly chunin against… they weren't bad, all were sufficiently talented individuals, but at least a couple more had died, for sure.

I'd lost my sand, but only half of it, I still had plenty of kunai and shuriken, my whips and spear were sealed away and my katana, well, I'd slept holding it. I was fine, mostly, but seeing a medic was high on my priority list.

**XXX**

War sucked, I decided, thoroughly disappointed by the fact that Konoha's camp had changed location. It was natural I supposed, after a fight like that both sides probably pulled way back, but knowing that didn't exactly make me a happy-go-lucky idiot.

In other words, I was scowling as I trudged along, tracking down the guys who carried the tents.

I suppose _that _at least was pleasant, Konoha had 'won', if they hadn't they'd have had to leave behind everything. As it was they had carried off cooking gear, tents; anything useful and portable.

But what was most telling was the fact that only Iwa bodies had been on the ground, flies buzzing around their broken bodies. A pile of ashes was enough to tell me what had happened to the Konoha-nin who had died.

At noon I stopped to eat, unsealing some food I had brought for such a situation. After another hour of walking along, and didn't that say how bad I felt, I came to Konoha's new camp, old tents, singed and bloody, mixed with new ones, clean and fresh.

"Name?" The chunin asked dutifully, though he was clearly more inclined to hurry me to some sort of resting place.

"Uchiha Nanashi," I gave my shinobi ID, "Got clawed, dirty claws; rabies is out of the question, but I may have some sort of infection."

It now struck me that I might be charged with cowardice in the face of duty, but I doubted such a plot would be hatched. After-all, no one really saw me run away from the fighting.

To explain, I clearly consciously walked away from the fight, opting to let my comrades fight and die while I collapsed in a meadow.

The man called his superior over, and then he checked me out, "Alright, medic tents are in the very back, can't miss 'em." He swallowed after he said that as lightly as he could. The meaning wasn't lost on me.

I plodded over to the medic tents, willing down the portion of me that wished I hadn't. The screams and begs were pitiful in the extreme.

It was enough to make one think that the ones who died were the lucky ones. I clenched my jaw, asking an over-worked medic-nin where I should go.

He directed me to a small tent, 'where ninja get a preliminary examination by which they are placed in prioritized order based on value, danger if not treated, and chance of ultimate survival.'

To put it in a more harsh way, 'genin with no talent who have lost a lung won't be treated'. Well, this was an army of assassins after-all. It made one feel quite selfish, going in over a scratch while others waited to get amputated.

Nonetheless, I signed in, getting checked over by a female nurse. She entered in my priority level and then dismissed me to the waiting area.

If the sounds from the surgery tents were bad than the waiting area was real-live anatomy class, with areas cut back to show the interior and all. I activated my Sharingan, burning the scene into my memory forever.

I'd probably regret that, but I wanted to see if any of my team was here. I found one, Mizuki; she seemed to have a punctured lung, a result of broken ribs. It looked painful, but I moved over to her anyway.

"Sorry I didn't stick around with you guys," I trailed off, "Don't talk." I ordered as she made to speak up, coughing blood that lined her throat.

I didn't know much about medicine; internal organs had always grossed me out to one degree or another. But I wanted to now, I wanted to be able to do _something_ but it was not to be, all I could do was hold Nakada's slowly cooling hand as she gradually died.

I hated it, to be honest, having someone I was, even if only barely, responsible for dying as I stood by was a feeling I didn't want to ever repeat. So that left me with a conundrum, either make myself never responsible for anyone else, or make myself strong enough to never let them die.

As Anakin Skywalker proved, the latter was impossible, the first… the first was merely a psychological state. I didn't like it though, so I'd stay just as I was, I didn't need to change because of this.

No-no, I was thinking about this wrong, never was too strong a word, but I could at least try. Yes, it was decided, I'd delve into the mysteries of medical next chance I got. Eventually, Mizuki's turn came; they took her away, her mind already delusional from blood-loss.

It was actually amazing she'd lived this long, but I suppose stranger things have happened. With my rather boring company gone I felt no strong attraction to my present location, so I got up, wandering the outdoor waiting area.

I found one I knew, even if only slightly, Nara Shikaku, he had wounds on his face, cuts or deep scratches, widely separated, but both on his right side, diagonally tracing a line until it came to an end on his forehead. Similar to it was one below, coming to an end rather below his eye and not blemishing his nose.

These, however, were not serious enough to force him to come; his bloody vest was more telling. Since he was a clan heir and not yet treated I had to assume that it was nothing serious.

He was just a boy, I noticed, picking apart his flimsy frame with my eyes.

"Nara Shikaku, a pleasure to see you, even here."

His genius countenance puzzled over just who I might be for a few seconds, "Ah, Uchiha Nanashi or I am a fool."

"Then I must attest to this fact: you are no fool."

"Troublesome, why are you here?"

"Little ole me? I'm wounded you see, just _have _to get it looked at you see." I grinned in a thin line, my mood shifting into a separate persona. My eyes were like slits, and I used an accent.

"That looks very unnatural." Shikaku finally admitted.

"I apologize, it was not my intention to creep Shikaku-sama out," My mood shifted away just as easily.

The Nara was too lazy to bother replying, preferring to sit calmly.

"I see your customary friends aren't with you, I presume this means you were the unlucky one?"

He nodded. I could very well see why he didn't have very many friends, his lazy attitude destroying my opinion of him rapidly. I hated lazy talents; they were an affront to men less advantaged who tried ten times as hard and yet could not win.

It was shameful; the geniuses should not squander their gifts and talents as if they have thousands to spare. And no one doubted that Shikaku was talented. Still, I knew little of what he did in his spare time, if he affected sloth in public yet worked himself to death in private who was I to know?

I left wordlessly, not trusting my tongue to keep itself still.

But one thing remained certain; if that boy came under my jurisdiction I'd tell him my mind. My back throbbed painfully, the wound doing its level best to hog my attention.

A couple hours passed, but I could do nothing more than pit the ground in front of me with mini-SEFs. I had absolutely nothing to do, and my mind refused to take a scientific tangent.

I, eventually, remembered the puppet designs waiting for me at home, so I began shooting chakra strings out.

Chakra was a curious thing, mental chakra was used for control; it could only interact with the mind and other chakra, physical chakra included. Now, some don't know it, but spiritual chakra is invisible, except to a doujutsu.

However, even if a chakra string is made up of 99% spiritual chakra it can be the strongest effective cable in existence. But the connections have to be made with physical chakra, which can interact with physical realities in a much more meaningful way.

But as long as both tips are made up of physical chakra, the string itself can be made of mental chakra, thus making the string invisible, convenient. Of course, this was just a rather lengthy description of the magician-worthy trick known as invisible thread.

I wanted to get so good with my chakra that I could make it stiff or flexible at any given point all at once. This was useful for controlling a puppet, and all manner of string technique was necessary for such an endeavor.

Ideally, I'd also learn a higher level of sealing, but if I was to learn medical techniques it'd have to come later; fuinjutsu was a time-consuming art. I was so involved in my ever growing web of invisible strings I didn't notice it was my turn to go until the poor fellow sent to fetch me tripped over one of them.

My concentration wavered and physical energy rushed out of my body into the strings, lighting up the area in pale blue for a moment before I dispelled them. It was possible to control thousands of strings, as long as one's mind was up to the task.

The medic gave me antibiotics and the instructions for them, but chakra was clearly too low in supply to waste it on healing me. Apparently I was in no danger from any diseases or infections the nails may have harbored.

Since I wasn't immobile I made my way to the commander's office.

"Uchiha Nanashi, capable of combat, I am reporting for duty."

Sakumo looked me over, "You don't look so great."

"A little low on blood, Hatake-sama."

"Please, I've heard all about the legendary sand-stand; Sakumo."

"Then Sakumo-sama, I was wondering where I might find the casualty report, as you may remember I was leading a team; I want to be able to write my report."

"You can see it, but I doubt your team will show up, you weren't listed in this bases' contingent."

"I was listed independently?"

"Seems so."

That meant I was responsible for my own casualty report, in full.

"Thank you sir," I browsed through the fairly large list, finding listings of 'possible Konoha-nin' the description followed. I identified Daiki, Mitsuo, Momo, and Isao from the list, all were deceased.

It seemed me, Ryota, and Mizuki were the only ones who made it out alive. Unlucky was what it was, it was too many deaths; it was war at its very finest moment.

"Thank you again, Sakumo-sama, I'll write up my report."

I didn't want it to end this way, so I wouldn't. I unsealed a scroll under a tree, briefly summarizing the events of my mission. It ended it thus:

_I am sending this to you with what remains of my team, but since the mission has no set date I will remain in the area until I am satisfied, if Hokage-sama wishes to recall me, I am more than ready. I can only assure that this is not out of some sort of blind revenge, I will survive._

I then asked around, finding Ryota rather easily due to his blue hair. He had two slashes on his left cheek, but otherwise seemed uninjured.

"They probably healed Nakada, so once she is ready I'm sending you both home."

"Unacceptable, how are you going to send me back? I'm clearly combat ready, more so than you." Adachi responded rebelliously.

"So what's your plan?"

"Send Mizuki-san back alone, or else we all go back together."

"You want to stay?"

"If I'm gonna die I might was well do it sooner rather than later."

I grinned at that, "Well, I _can _stop you, but I won't, be ready at a moment's notice."

"How's your stealth?" I asked.

"Like a gnat at night."

"So passable, it'll do."

"Let's go check on Nakada," We made our way to the recovery section; where the groans were much less severe, a testament to the effectiveness of iryojutsu.

"Here to see Nakada Mizuki, team leader, Uchiha Nanashi." I listed off the answers to the questions before they got asked, rapidly being shown to a much healthier Mizuki.

"Can she talk?" I asked the nurse.

"Certainly, they got it all fixed up."

I thanked her, and then turned to Mizuki. She was pale, but at least her chest wasn't sunken from displaced ribs.

"So, how was it?"

"They put me out."

"Oh." I pondered over my words for a couple seconds, "Adachi and I are staying; how long do they say you'll need bed-rest for?"

"A couple days, you're sending me back?"

"That's the plan."

Mizuki looked into my eyes, the fire in her own blazing, "I'm a strong girl, Uchiha-san, and I can fight more."

What was with this? Getting the snot beat out of people made them want more? Seriously, where was I, Masochon?

"You two are hopeless, and so am I, this is stupid, once you are combat ready we'll continue."

"Thank you, sir." She smiled weakly at me.

I shook my head at the insanity, erasing my closing statements of the report before sealing it back up. War may be cruel, but it awakens a part of inside humanity that is greater than any peace time bravery. But this clashed horribly with me, as I held that one smart man who's not afraid to be a coward is worth ten 'brave' idiots.

I believe that's what should really count as bravery, someone who is not afraid of being afraid. Not someone who yells at a dragon defiantly to his own death.

"Good luck, Mizuki-san." Ryota gave her his words.

"I'll be back the day after tomorrow, unless I'm dead, captured, or passed out, look forward to it." I then left, but Ryota stayed for a couple minutes before joining me outside.

"You waited for me?"

"If you took too long I'd have to go back and get you."

"You don't really think I'm that kind of guy, do you?" He asked, trying to sound dangerous.

"Hey, I'm not the one who said that." I smiled at him, pleased that I had tricked him.

"I'll get you back on that some time."

"Revenge is a terrible thing, Ryota-kun; embrace it so easily, one should not." I used my best 'wise old man' voice on him, which was pretty good.

I chuckled, ruffling his hair. Adachi did _not _like that, "I'm older than you, you know."

"And I'm taller, who cares?"

"Obviously not you," Then he continued in his own old man voice "But society has norms for a reason, Nanashi-kun."

"I know that, and don't get me on a tangent as to why it does."

XXXX

Two days passed, my scabs well on their way to healing. Mizuki was out of the field hospital, but still weak and pale.

Ryota spent his time sparring with me, his lighting-infused tanto scoring a hit only once.

After a couple more days I deemed the group ready, so we set out cautiously, deeply aware that our team was smaller than it ought to be. This time we had a special something called binoculars, so that my team could see long distances for themselves.

Unfortunately, the chakra in glass made the Sharingan view too blurry for use. We scouted around, finding the relocated Iwa camp on our second day back in the field.

Iwa had a ring of sentries around the camp, so getting a closer view was impossible. Well, impossible was overstating things.

"I… notice…" Broken conversation assaulted my ears; I quietly turned in the direction of the noise, spotting a genin team, jonin sensei and all.

I put my finger to my lips meaningfully, alerting my team of my intention. We followed at a good distance, my Sharingan making sure we did not lose sight of the enemy.

Once we were out of sound range of the sentries, we closed the distance. The jonin quickly spotted us, eyes widening in horror, he knew what was coming. He was a black-haired green-eyed man of around thirty. His genin were small, near-fresh, one was a pale-haired girl, the other two were boys, one tall and dark, the other giving off a 'I'm the smartest in this bunch' vibe.

I heralded the beginning of combat with forty mini-SEFs.

"Doton: Earth Wall!" A dirt wall of precise dimensions sprang up and interrupted my technique.

I drew my katana, slicing through the wall in an inexpert Iaido strike, by the time the top half fell my sword was back in its scabbard, my face pointing towards my enemies' feet. My eyes, however, looked at their ones, creating a more intimidating effect.

I leapt over what remained of the rather thin earth wall, drawing my katana and immediately assaulting the jonin with an overhead strike. It was a bad move, but I made up for it in impressive speed, bringing my sharpened sword down before the man could counter.

"Uchiha!" He yelled, noticed my tell-tale Sharingan.

Ryota had already killed one of the genin, and was now engaging the other two. Without a plan, and without the brainy one to make one, the two would fall easily.

Mizuki was hanging back, as per my orders, until one of us needed her.

The jonin drew daggers from his boots, they didn't look Japanese, but rather more western. He was fast, and he truly tried his best to get in close, but my mini-SEFs kept him back while my katana held his primary attention.

"Who are you?" He asked, a short lull falling over the battlefield.

"So you can escape and tell your superiors? I think not!" I lunged forward, but, as predicted, he used the mole technique to escape underground. Too bad the idiot didn't realize I planned on that. My lunge hit its target perfectly, sinking into the ground.

It came back with faint traces of blood upon it. It was annoying that he had buried himself, now we'd have to dig him out if we were to investigate his belongings. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to waste on such a scheme, this _was _enemy territory.

Adachi had finished the girl, Mizuki popping out of her hiding place and finishing the tall boy. We scavenged what we could off of them; then burnt the bodies.

We reported in to Sakumo, informing him of our findings, he received it gratefully. We then ate a somewhat late lunch, before once again heading out.

A couple of weeks passed this way, our group harrying what small forces of Iwa-nin we could. At the end of this period the enemy ninja always moved in groups too powerful for us to challenge, so we returned to the village in the leaves.

XXXX

"Hokage-sama," I handed over the report. Sarutobi looked it over calmly, his poker face constant.

"You did well," He looked over the more brief reports my team remaining subordinates had filed, "And your team agrees."

"I lost five men, Hokage-sama."

"I know, and I regret you did, as I am sure you do," I nodded, "Have you thought on the fire?"

"Yes. The fire is the village, supported by the sacrifice of its citizens, the wood which is burnt."

He winced, "When the symbol was conceived, the fuel didn't enter the equation. Rather than sacrifice, as you say, it is meant to symbolize the way a single flame is easily snuffed out, but a roaring fire is not so simply quenched, teamwork."

I lost the profound level of respect I had found for Hashirama. I mean, really? The dude didn't even think about the fact that a fire consumes? It was enough to make you shake your head.

"I see," Was all I could manage, my mind angry at arriving at the wrong conclusion.

"Well, I'll let you know when I have need of you; the pay will be placed in your account."

I took my leave of the Hokage, making my way to the library. No one had time to tutor me on medical techniques, and I wasn't about to give them up.

I quickly discovered that iryojutsu was merely a way to speed up cell division, fast-forwarding healing by an astronomical amount. Learning to use the state of the art and well known 'healing palm' was incredibly easy, most of a medic's time was spent refining chakra perception and anatomical knowledge.

I say chakra perception because the damage to the patient, and effectiveness of healing, was reliant on a medic's ability to make their own chakra more similar to the patient's, to reduce violent chakra conflict. Anatomy was covered, along with bone setting, for obvious reasons. These being that even accelerated cell division didn't put a rib, or other bone, back in place, nor did it cover surgery.

I cut my arm experimentally, trying to make the technique work without actually using it; Kabuto had regenerated, hadn't he? Unfortunately, it didn't work; a miniscule amount of conflict was needed, and sending my arm chakra through my own body didn't change anything about it.

But this was no obstacle for a man like me, who controlled sand by changing his chakra. A slight variation and: Viola! Perfect skin, like it never even happened.

Of course, right now I needed a couple seconds to activate it, full of concentration, not something for combat exactly. Still, it was enough to prove that a little bit of a new view and some ambitious thinking was enough to open whole new areas of chakra, as yet undiscovered.

I spent the next two days refining my control of healing, so that it might be useful. I was then sent out on another mission, this time as a subordinate.

Months passed in a similar manner, missions being run back and forth, me learning more and more about medical techniques. I was pretty caught up in it all before I realized one important thing: Obito was around now, wasn't he?

Probably four years old now no less. Time to check up on the time-bomb, who knows, if I thought it expedient, maybe I'd train him myself, that might solve some problems.

When the established order isn't what you want, throw in some wrenches, eh? Madara might be able to hook some other punk, but he probably won't be as troublesome as the Kamui. Compared to killing Obito, this sounded rather good.

Even in war there was enough time to drop by a clan-member's house. It was simple enough to find which house Obito lived in, the clan record containing all births and parents. Curiously, Obito had the 'adopted' tag next to his name, not that it mattered all that much.

The man of the house was out, but the woman was not, for obvious reasons.

"Uchiha Nanashi, I've come to call." I explained myself to her.

"Nanashi-sama? Why are you here of all places, do come in, I'm Nao." She invited me in, my mouth spread in a pleasant grin.

"Well, Nao-san, I'll be blunt, I'm interested in meeting your son, Obito."

"Little Obito? He seems a bit disadvantaged, and incorrigibly lazy, even the other children disdain him." She seemed sad to have such a miss-fit, "I hardly think he's worth your time, respectfully."

"The child is, nonetheless, destined for great things; if it's alright I really would like to get to know him."

"Destined…?" She repeated the word; then looked at me slightly strangely, "Do you believe in such a thing, Nanashi-sama?"

"Honestly? No. But with proper education his talent will show, without question."

"He'll be sent off to the academy, come next semester, and I know you're busy, but if you really want to teach my boy, then I won't stop you."

"My spare time is my spare time… thank you for understanding, is he outside?"

"Yes, I'll show you to him."

Nao, black-haired housewife, led me to where the boy was; unfortunately, he was crying like a little wimp.

"Boy!" I called out to him; his eyes looked into my own, his short, spiky, hair shooting up.

"Yes?" He asked; voice still childishly indistinct.

"Come here," He walked over, "What ails you lad?"

"Ails?" He asked.

"Ails, makes you ill or hurt." I simplified it for him.

"Nothing," He looked at the ground.

"Your lie is as obvious as a fire technique, or do you admit that you cried for no reason?"

"No! I'm not hurt and I didn't cry!"

"Boy, foolish bravado is not admirable in the least."

His head tilted; his brain uncomprehending, my vocabulary far too advanced for the brat. Good grief, why couldn't everyone be a genius?

"I'm telling you that denying what has already been proven is foolish, what you accept as proof is a topic for another time."

He nodded, wiping off what remained of his tears, "Why are you here, ninja-san?"

"For you, I'm deciding if I should spend time on you."

"Nobody but Nao spends time with me." So he was aware that, biologically, Nao wasn't his mom.

Just then a whole troop of children trampled into the courtyard.

"What's this? Someone come to teach the idiot a lesson?" The no-doubt bully asked, bullies at this age, what was the world coming to?

"No. I'm here to evaluate the risk he poses." This would be fun.

"Risk? Pahahaha! You hear that? Risk! The idiot couldn't even kill a mouse if he tried."

"I disagree, if the mouse were immobilized, Obito-kun shows sufficient manual dexterity and base strength to kill a mouse bare-handed."

The boy's eyes closed for a minute, picking apart my sentence in his young mind, "Alright, prove it."

"Nao-san?" I asked her.

"Go ahead; he's going to be living life as a ninja in a few years anyway."

"Good! Then I shall, find me a mouse!" I yelled as shadow clones puffed into existence, scouring the land for a measly mouse.

In five minutes the first returned, holding a squirming mouse by the tail. I dispelled my other clones, their purpose fulfilled.

With a simple thought the earth rose up, catching it by the legs and holding it down. It was a rather large mouse, but still a tiny beast.

I handed a kunai to Obito, all the children watching with entrancement, "Kill it."

"No!"

"Provide to me a reason why you should not and I shall grant your request."

"I don't want to."

"Before long you'll be killing men, a simple vermin that spreads disease is no trouble, indeed, you'd do the world a favor."

There was a pause, giving me time to observe my surroundings. The house seemed rather large for an Uchiha clan home. Ah, this was the Uchiha day-care, wasn't it? Since many Uchiha couples were almost always out working the clan had the idea to make a place for their kids, this. Orphaned children were adopted by the ones who owned the place.

Unfortunately, this 'everybody is a family' attempt had back-fired, to some extent, as evidenced by… what? This didn't qualify as bullying, did it? I myself had been called idiot probably thousands of times by my own siblings, back in the day.

I looked back to Obito, who was still glancing between me, the kunai, and the now still mouse.

"Allow me to say it, 'I don't want to' is not going to convince me, so be eloquent or be violent."

"Eloquent?"

"Convincing, having pleasant and believable speech, that kind of thing."

"Oh." His brow scrunched up, "Mister ninja?" He asked cutely.

"Yes?"

"I've heard that you shouldn't kill without a reason, I have no reason."

I raised an eyebrow at him, gazing intently into his eyes, "So then," I turned to the other children, "What will you call him if he can't?"

"A wimpy coward!"

"So, what will you call him if he can?"

"Mouse-bane!" They yelled back after a moment's deliberation, clearly believing he wouldn't do it.

"So then," I began again, facing Obito once more, "There is a reason." I stared at him, "But is it a reason for _you?_"

"Uh-uh." He shook his head.

I let the mouse go, "Then I christen you A Wimpy Uchiha, Coward Obito!" I mini-SEFed the mouse's brains, no reason to let it live.

"Wimpy! Coward!" The children all taunted at once.

"There is nothing wrong with being a coward, but a wimp? Tch, tch," I shook my head, "You'll do."

"Huh?" Obito asked, not getting it.

"You showed disdain for taunts and the opinions of other's, or at least tried, it was enough to convince me to teach you."

"That was a test?" He half-screamed at me.

"Do you really think I have time to waste on such a whimsical adventure and _not _test anyone?"

"Who are you?"

"Call me… Nanashi-sensei."

"Who said I would let you teach me?"

"Child, you are so stupid, you have no choice." I poked him in the forehead, "Foolish Obito."

He did his best to shove my finger away, "Don't call me that!"

"Don't constantly yell; it's annoying."

First came PE; something my own teachers never had to spend much time on when it came to me, my own diligence in the subject nearly sufficient. I only had a few hours in a month to spend with him, but I did my best to lay it out for him; instructing him in both proper use of power and growing in power itself.

Unfortunately, my limited instruction was not enough for the boy, who slacked off to an unbelievable degree, at least when I was gone. I only had a total of two months giving the boy private instruction before he was sent off to the academy.

A certain Nohara Rin had befriended him, but Kakashi had a poor impression of him. If the report I heard from word of mouth was anything to go by.

XXXX

Three months later I realized that my talent as a medic-nin was lacking. My ability to learn advanced techniques was incredibly low; all I could do was heal cuts and scrapes. Of course, the ability to stop myself from bleeding out with only a mental command was powerful, but if a rib planted itself in my lung there was really nothing I could ever do.

Whenever I was not in an imminent combat situation I was cutting myself or burning myself; then healing the wounds with my regeneration. It made my teams think I was nuts, but who cared? I just wanted to be able to use regeneration without even thinking about it.

Before I knew it I was already sixteen, my arms bearing self-inflicted scars, and by back still harboring the claw marks of that memorable fight. Kakashi had already graduated, so early he couldn't even be placed on a team, so he was given to my friend Minato.

It was good to know some things didn't change, because let me tell you, the fact that Sakumo was as hearty and alive as ever threw me for a loop. Had I made the difference without even knowing it? It was possible, but maybe my time-line was screwed up, maybe it wasn't to happen for a few months yet.

Obito was far from genius, but his intelligence wasn't actually lower than the average. Unfortunately for him, Uchiha generally were smarter, faster, and stronger than their peers, so his just 'above-average' rating was still considered low-key. It didn't help that the brat had constantly challenged the genius Kakashi, wounding his low self-esteem further.

Pride is bad, and humility is good, but when it comes to thinking that you can't do something before you even try, it's not acceptable. Luckily for me, Obito was a bounce-back sort of fellow, so these emotional lows usually lasted hours at the most.

XXXX

"Coward, come here."

"Yes, Nanashi-sensei?"

"Why do you put things off?"

"This is like the fortieth time you've asked this!"

"It's the sixteenth; I keep track of things, boy."

"Whatever."

I frowned at the fool in front of me, "Coward, why is it that you try to blow other people's useful advice off?"

Obito fell silent, he didn't know. It was, obviously enough, just because that was his personality, but people _do _change. And I didn't mean to leave flaws where I could destroy them.

"'Cuz I do?"

"Rationalize it, what reason do you have to do such a harmful thing?"

"None," He had to admit.

"Good, then apply that to your life, now, this is how a kunai should be thrown…"

I'd taken to calling Obito coward, since he had earned that title. He didn't like it at first, but now it didn't even mean anything to him, coward being nothing more than a nick-name to him now.

XXXX

Fugaku, well, he wasn't happy. The reason? He'd just found out that I was teaching Obito a few things.

"Why do you waste your time on a -by all accounts- talentless fool?" He demanded angrily.

"He _is_ part of the clan, and I have chosen to, what is that to you?" I asked calmly, refusing to let irritation bubble up.

"You could be teaching an entire school full of near-genius students in your arts, yet you chose _this_?" Incidentally, Fugaku had rushed right over once he heard, and Obito was right there with us.

"I know things that you cannot fathom, Nii-san, even you know this," A little misdirection for the win, "If I see that he is worth my time, what meaning has it to you? Do you distrust my judgment; do you think this is a mere whim?" It _was _a whim, but not a mere one.

He looked into my eyes, his superior stature attempting to become intimidating, "I believe you are a smart man, brother, but even smart men make mistakes."

I nodded at that, conceding the point, "You are right, Nii-san, I have no idea if the brat is even worth my time; I know not if what I seek to prevent can even now occur."

"And what do you seek to prevent?"

"Let's talk privately." I glanced at Obito meaningfully.

His brow rose, but we journeyed to our own home, entering into my library. This was crazy, but if I had to pick who I trusted most, it'd probably be Nii-san.

"Madara is quite alive." If I died, someone had to know, why not my brother?

Fugaku's eyes widened, "And how do you know this? Nay, it cannot even be true."

"I am no ordinary man, but my secret is not something to be told."

"But you are human? You are my brother?"

"Yes, that will not change, even if the world turns to dust."

He seemed reassured by that, aware of my sincerity. He turned around for a minute, and then turned back to me.

"Do you know where he is?"

"I do not, I know only that his life is fragile; he needs a helper."

"And Obito…?" He left it hanging in an implicating way.

"Possibly, but it's possible he may find someone else."

"I see. What shall we do?"

"Madara wishes his clan destroyed, so he cannot be allowed to complete whatever his plan is, I will deal with him."

"And me?"

"I tell you this so that you may know; for death may take me at any-time, let not this information distract you, I will deal with it."

"And if you do die?"

"Then be ready for anything, for even I do not know what is to come." Fugaku could keep a secret; the info would go no further than that room. Still, I probably shouldn't have dropped the bomb right now, with his marriage coming up and all.

I returned to Obito, finding him where I left him, only lying down and napping.

"Coward! Why do you sleep when the target is before you?"

"Hnn?" He rubbed his eyes, nothing but a questioning sound leaving his throat.

"You have kunai, and you have a target, yet you while away your time by sleeping? This shall not do at all; even when you are alone you must try."

This was why he was the worst, laziness beyond compare, when he thought the authority figure was gone he'd lie down in the grass, or wherever he was, and sleep.

"Obito," I only used his name when I was quite stern, "Do you have no desire to be a good ninja?"

"Huh? Of course I do, I'm going to be Hokage!"

Not a brat yelling 'Hokage!' everywhere! Good grief, he wasn't even cute like Minato or a girl like Kushina, this was just obnoxious. Why couldn't I have picked a smart little whippersnapper like Kakashi, Obito was clearly more suited to Minato.

Maybe that was the whole point, each kid was one extreme and we teachers had to mellow them out. Ah well, I'd be pawning Obito off to Minato in a few years anyway, if cannon was anything to go by.

XXXX

**Authors Note: My proof reader bout it to my intention that this line may have been misunderstood: **"Please, I've heard all about the legendary sand-stand; Sakumo."

**Be aware here that Sakumo is the speaker, telling Nanashi to call him Sakumo.**

**Please be aware that Nanashi can't heal injuries of any sort with his 'regeneration', simple stuff is easy though. **

**I hoped that you all like this chapter, review, hate, rage-quit, love, whatever.**

**Sincerely, your author, Iamwhononofyouare**


	19. Chapter 19, War IV

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its canon characters.**

**Chapter 19, War IV, Deployment**

A few weeks after Obito first started the academy I received a notice. I was being officially deployed, mission and harassment were over for me; I was joining the rank and file.

Well, not quite, I was given the rank assistant commander, somewhere like seventh in the line of authority. Naturally, senior jonin were quite perplexed that they'd been overlooked in favor of my rather young self.

Still, orders were orders, so I reported to Sakumo as soon as possible.

"It looks like we'll be working together for a while, sir; I'm in your care." I bowed.

"Please, lift your head, the honor is mine."

"You're aware of the reason Hokage-sama sent so many reinforcements?"

"Not at all. The meaning isn't too hard to guess though."

"Heh! We'll be paying back the Iwa ten-fold before you know it." Hatake declared confidently.

"I certainly look forward to it, what will I be doing, sir?"

"What you're good at, assault."

"I'm sorry to give off such a blunt impression."

"No, it's a compliment; Konoha could use some more real heavy-weight fighters."

I wouldn't call myself a heavy-weight, but I wasn't about to argue with my commanding officer over such a point.

"Anyway, you'll be leading the vanguard upon our assault in four days, provided Iwa doesn't make a move." Yikes, that put my death chance up by like five times, did Sarutobi want me dead? Or did Sakumo?

"It's an honor."

"I say vanguard, but we won't be more than five feet behind you." Yeah, but I'm still first in the line of fire.

"That's good to know, is my group gathered?"

"Yes, the logistics are pretty much taken care of; all we need is to go over the plan as commanders."

"When will we be meeting?" I asked, not wanting to miss something so obviously important.

"Tomorrow at noon, if we need another meeting my aide will inform you that evening."

"Thank you sir, I'll go to my group now." I bowed to around fifty degrees; then turned and left the pavilion.

The war had stagnated to an extent, other countries now warring with Konoha while Iwa weighed the risks of another large battle. All until now; once Konoha attacked the Iwa camp, win or lose, the world would change.

I didn't need instructions to find my new subordinates, only a guide. More precisely, my newest second-in-command, he'd been running the show for a little while and was now handing over the reins, just as glory was around the corner. It came as no surprise then that he was chagrinned to a certain extent.

My subordinates were all powerful shinobi in their own right, most of them jonin a good deal older than myself. It certainly raised the question as to why I, of all people, was given command.

As I learned the next day, I was just in charge of a portion of the vanguard, there were three sections of it; I had the left flank. I tried my best to raise morale while staying true to reality, which in war isn't easy.

I received a notice while I was eating my supper that the commanders would be meeting again, at two the following afternoon. Since till then I was free, I left my tent, with the intention of training.

It was a training method I'd considered, but was never in condition to try while it was upon my mind. The idea was simple; support myself with a one hand hand-stand. Only, the surface on which this hand would rest would be my sand, held in mid-air with chakra. A training method to refine multiple sections of the mind and physical muscle all at once, it wasn't something your average joe did just for fun.

For jonin, one-handed stands for short periods of time were pretty commonplace, but lengthy durations were just not easy. So then, it came as no surprise that I fell many times while attempting the rather difficult practice. My goal was to be able to support myself on one finger with eight grains of sand. Ambitious, but one didn't become strong by contentedness.

The longest I managed was ninety-six seconds, but a start was a start. The time then came to present myself for the commanders' meeting.

I took my seat wordlessly, preferring to study the map in front of me. Honestly, there was no need for it, since I had the map memorized already, but the minor additions were curious.

"I call this meeting to order." Sakumo began the conference, "There is a major reason you are all here. After our meeting yesterday I received information that the Iwa camp has received substantial reinforcements. We need to take a vote to see if we should continue. We'll start from Shinji here and go down the line of command, cast your vote and give your reasoning."

Shinji was second in the chain, so it was obvious how this was going to go, "I say we continue, our forces are still superior and, if we rush our attack, this may even work to our advantage."

"We'll come back to that later, Hikaru?"

"I believe we're too far invested in this to stop, we should attack just as soon as each division is ready."

Sakumo then cued number four, "Call it off, Iwa could have a battalion we don't even know about plus this new force."

The fifth in command was a female, intelligent by most accounts, named Abe Chou, "Do we have any idea on how powerful this group is?"

"Not really, beyond an approximate number all we know is that they all seem full-grown."

Konoha had wars now with minor villages like Rain and River. And, since most of the elites besides the Sannin themselves were up at Iwa, kids had to be sent out, there just weren't enough troops.

It seemed Iwa was in a similar position, fighting a now-angry Kusa, a proud Ishi, and a rather powerful Taki. How Iwa had offended Kusa no one really knew, but assumptions leaned towards the fact that certain Grass elements were disturbed by Iwa's unannounced use of Kusa as a staging ground.

Chou frowned, her plain features marred by the action, "So what is the number, sir?"

"Around a hundred." So the Iwa force was nigh-equal with our own now.

"Then withdraw from this course of action, the quantity of enemy forces is too great to risk this force on."

"We should revise our plan; the situation is just too different now." The sixth said shortly, being a man of few words.

"There is more to consider than just saving men and losing men. Morale drops if we lose too many, morale rises if we win a fight; and morale drops when we retreat. But mark my words, Iwa knows we are coming soon, or else these hundred would have been sent to end some minor war." I began my two cents thus, pausing to look each of the people present in the eye, "So then, the question is obvious, can we crush a prepared army? I think not."

"A hundred is clearly too many, we must cancel the operation. There is no way our only slightly superior force can win with an acceptable margin." The man below me in authority spoke his piece.

The ninth's turn was now at hand, "Attack, and now, if we strike quickly and without warning will we not take them off guard?"

And finally, number ten, Fujita Tatsuo, "We have better men, more experienced men, and more talented men," Oh spare me the super-Konoha speech, "But the plan must remain as unchanged as possible, for if we do not follow the plan, what do we follow? No, we must proceed apace; the date was set as it was for a reason."

Sakumo was silent for a moment before he spoke, "Certainly the general opinion leans to an immediate attack. However, I value the lives of our subordinates too much, to send them to death with only a meager chance of victory is not right."

The audience nodded, proving exactly why Sakumo had been chosen to lead, he was a man that was humble, yet clearly a genius. The charisma and perception he had were second in Konoha to only Hiruzen himself. It was no surprise a man like him could allay concerns and subdue passions with only words.

"Unfortunately, Iwa has forced a re-stagnation of the war, until we can reduce enemy forces sufficiently we'll have to play this as a war of attrition. Vanguard commanders, consider yourselves re-commissioned, you'll now be in charge of wreaking havoc on enemy supply lines. Central and clean-up commanders, you'll be taking shifts guarding our own supply lines and garrisoning the camp."

He looked us over, "Any objections at all?"

Well, that changed nothing, it seemed I was back to harass and destroy missions. Still, I had no objection so I didn't raise my voice.

"None?" Sakumo asked, sounding surprised, "Then consider this meeting dismissed. And Shinji, sorry we didn't talk about your idea."

"It's fine, sir."

We saluted Hatake, then left, each to his own command. Well, the third war was one of attrition, if a big battle like this happened that'd all change, history wasn't quite so pliable. I informed my squad of the decision, further dividing it into four sub-divisions, three under capable commanders and the fourth as my personal unit.

I gave myself those who were low-ranked and weak, not liking to rule over men strong enough to put up a resistance. Not that this was ruling anyway, but no matter. Including myself, my group was nine strong, a reasonable force.

My first task: to capture and interrogate some Iwa-nin. Ninja didn't like to be captured however, so this was often difficult. With my sand though… I could capture even those who would slit their own throats.

We set out that very afternoon, my hate of laziness not allowing me to rest inside some stuffy tent. We found no one that evening, so we set up camp in the field, opting to try again the next day.

Since this was war, two ninja had to be on guard at night, making all of us get less sleep. But it was necessary, and all things necessary are done.

The night passed slowly, but the chirping of birds came soon enough. Morning was here, and with it, danger.

Danger in the form of a hostile patrol, there were twelve members on the opposing side. It was too late to leave without leaving evidence, so a fight was upon us.

"Wake up sleepy heads!" My watch-mate Daijiro and I quickly woke up the rest of the team, just as the Iwa-nin spotted us. I scanned the enemy force, picking out those who would most likely break under interrogation.

Two females, they were the first obvious choice, a timid looking chunin; looks often deceived, but with this guy? No. Finally, I picked out the toughest looking one out of the bunch; always have to throw in a challenge.

"In the name of Konoha I greet you! How are you today my fine earthy friends?" I greeted our guests pleasantly, diverting their attention to my talking head while out of my hand mini-SEFs flew, hitting seven of them, with three fatalities.

I unsealed my sand, the rest of my team covering the action as weapons and techniques flew towards me with fervor.

My sand chased down every remaining member of the Iwa patrol, catching them in a fearsome cocoon. Those who I had no interest in keeping? I destroyed their hearts with my sand, allowing their lifeless bodies to sink to the ground amidst copious amounts of cooling blood.

The four I had chosen however, they floated to me.

"Get the chakra restraints and the manacles!" I ordered; I wasn't interested in wasting my chakra on holding them forever.

"I'll… never… tell… you anything!" One of the females announced defiantly, her breathing labored due to the sand's oppressive grip.

A couple of my team had received skin-deep cuts, so I beckoned them over, healing them while others chained and restrained our captives.

"We're heading back to base, let's pick up here." We scavenged the remains of our dead opponents, gathering what was useful before burning the bodies. After we had completed this task we hastily headed back to our section of the main camp.

Fortunately, we encountered no resistance of the way back, so there was no trouble there. It was evening by the time all was ready.

"I'll take care of interrogations; keep a close watch on the others while I see to this one." I picked out the defiant girl, forcing her into my tent. I didn't enjoy interrogation; it always reminded me that our enemy is very human, not at all different from ourselves.

"Now, I'm sure you know what happens next, so either you can tell me what I want to know, or you can get hurt."

"I won't tell you a thing." Her brown eyes looked fiercely into my own black ones, her disheveled dark-brown hair shaking with her.

"You're afraid, girl, I can feel it; I can smell the sweat falling from you, there are many who are better at this than me." I was turned away from her when I said this, now I suddenly turned back to her, "I can always throw you to the men, it's not my style, but I don't think you'd like that."

She swallowed at that.

"I know what pain is, woman," I sliced my left arm, letting blood drip down into her feet, "And I know how to solve it." The wound closed up, the rest of the blood staying on my arm.

"You understand what that means; don't you? I can carve off a thigh; a cheek, anything, and you'll live. But the pain, you'll still feel the pain."

"Pain won't break me!"

"It won't? But then why would you say that? Why wouldn't you let me waste my time paining you uselessly? No, I think you're just trying to convince yourself."

"Whatever I tell you you'll just kill me when you're done with me." She glared at me.

I clapped slowly, "Now you're getting smart! But I wonder, is a painless death not worth anything these days?" I affected a voice of hurt and sadness.

"My country means more to me than that, Konoha scum!"

I flinched away from her mockingly, "Soo scary! Mommy, what am I going to do?" I looked away from the captive.

I threw a kunai through her foot, "That's what I'll do, oh, isn't that wonderful?"

"Oh my, what have a done? I'll fix that right up for you," I leaned down, twisting the kunai before I pulled it out, earning myself of gasp of pain, then I healed the wound, "Well, I guess the death won't be painless anymore." I commented dully as I brought my face next to hers, "Oh well." I pulled back.

"You're obviously no good at this." She spat at me.

"Well, I don't need to be, I only need one of four to tell me what I need to know, your pain will be in vain if one of them tells me anyway, and someone will."

"I don't believe you."

"You don't have to, I can just pack you up in a box and send you to Orochimaru-sensei to further his research; you'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Of the Sannin?"

"Who else? He's quite fond of terrifying people and dissecting bodies."

"Pack me up and send me then." She stated flatly.

"I like, that's some real resolve! So much I'll offer you a deal, you tell me what you know about Iwa troop numbers and mark down positions on this map and I'll send you to a very special place."

"What place?"

So she _was _interested, "A place we send foreign ninja who we interrogate and make a deal with, your chakra will be sealed and you'll be under close watch, but you can even make friends, have a family. It's a ludicrous scheme if you ask me, I'd rather we just killed everybody, but hey, orders are orders."

"Is there really such a thing?"

"You think Konoha would make such a place public? Forget it; there'd be all sorts of idiots trying to break the people inside out." I lost my rather enthusiastic tone, "But mark my words, if your information is false you'll live life in place real close by, T&amp;I." I warned sternly.

She swallowed, looking at her still-bloody foot, "Alright, bring out a map."

I smiled, handing over a blank map that was handy, "Now you realize I'm only a chunin, right?"

"Oh I do, just let me know whatever you can."

She marked some things down and orally recited others, telling me what few lies she could think off mixed with some truths. It was hard to pick the two apart, which is why I captured four of them.

"That's all I got."

"Ok!" I broke her neck, letting her body slip to the ground. I slipped the map she had drawn on into my vest, ordering my minions to bring me the next subject. In this case, the next female, this one was even younger, and had a frightened look.

Her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when they saw her dead comrade, "You killed her! You monster, you killed her!" She looked about ready cry.

I hugged the girl, "I'm sorry, she was just too stubborn, I didn't want to…" I slunk to the floor, "The higher ups don't let us leave them alive if they deem the chances to low for them to crack." I acted so very sorry even the prisoner wanted to comfort me.

"You won't make me do that to you will you? With these very hands!" I stared at my hands and began to sob miserably.

"They tell us to never let interrogators trick us; you're not tricking me are you?" The girl bit her lip.

"No! Why would I lie to you? I want to let you live, have a happy life, this war is so stupid." I stood up hastily and made a motion as if to grab her hands, really there were behind her back however.

"Yes, it is, but even if I have to die, even if I have to make you kill me, I won't betray my country."

"I understand; I can buy you a few more days at least. Guards! Bring this wench back to the others."

I whispered to him before he took her away, "Don't let the girl know I told you to do this, but make sure she can't talk."

The jonin nodded loyally, taking the girl back out to the other prisoners. I took a break from interrogating for a bit, not yet calling in the next one. I sipped slightly spiked water as I waited.

My guard came in, having dropped off the girl already, "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted."

"You're a piece of work."

"Changing personalities is essential to interrogation, if you don't; your true self will be scarred for life. Lying, threatening, killing, it's a terrible business, but a necessary one, bring the boy in."

"Yes sir."

They brought the 'boy' in, but up close he actually looked to be in his early twenties, his frame and build, however, were quite small. I looked over the chakra suppression tag, making sure it was working properly.

"Thank you, wait outside."

I took a seat at my desk, "So, you work for Iwa, yes?"

"I'm a chunin, I mostly do, did, patrol work."

"Any family back home?"

"No, I'm an orphan."

"You seem the type. Do you fancy yourself patriotic?"

"I'm just me."

"No need to be vague here, no one will punish you if you don't feel particularly loyal to Iwagakure."

"No, I mostly try to look out for myself; you're not going to hurt me are you?"

"I might, this'll be simple, in the interest of keeping, say, your right arm, tell me what you know," I glanced at the dead body still on the floor, "Or eventually you'll end up like her."

"Right, so what do I do?"

I brought out a fresh map, telling him to mark down what he knew. Everything he marked down was contrary to what I already had; so appearances really were deceiving. This kid did I pretty good job of acting the part.

"I know you're lying to me."

"What? No, this is all right, honest."

"You're a great actor, but I'm not that stupid, give me the real information, now."

"You caught me, huh? Bring out another map." He sighed.

This kid was stalling, why? Unless he had a plan- I got up, pulling down another map from the rafters.

"Hahaha! Idiot, I got you!" The small chunin exclaimed in a whisper as he laughed quietly; an earthen spear through my body. His manacles and the chakra suppression tag were lying uselessly on the ground.

"You got _that _me." I stated as I appeared, the me that was speared turning into chakra smoke, the energy destabilized.

I drew my katana, cutting off his left hand in one swift motion. I pulled rope out immediately, tightly tying it at the wrist, cutting off the flow of blood.

"GAH! That hurts! That really hurts!" He added in expletives.

"Buddha's wisdom, did you have to cut my hand off?" He asked, finally settling down, though still holding his arm.

"No, but you didn't have to lie to me." I countered calmly, "And you certainly didn't have to try to kill me." I added in.

My guards had come in when they heard the screaming, but now left at my dismissal.

"Now, I can send you on to someone more sadistically talented, I can spend a little time on you myself, or you can tell me the truth."

"Right; and what happens once I do?"

"I can kill you, you can join Konoha after a Yamanaka evaluation, or you might get to live the rest of your life in jail."

"On that note, why isn't a Yamanaka looking my head over right now?"

"I won't lie; I'm not perfect; it slipped my mind." I frowned, angry at my own slippage.

"Heh so even the great," He left it hanging, looking at me.

"Uchiha Nanashi." I rolled my eyes, playing along.

"Isn't perfect," He finished.

"Now that I think of it I might as well just take the lot of you to a Yamanaka anyway." This whole business had been a waste of time; a simple Yamanaka could find all this stuff out in a jiffy. I really was an idiot.

"Guard! Tell the others to gather up the rest of the group here and then take care of this dead body."

"Yes sir!" He checked in to make sure it wasn't the prisoner copying my voice, quite a thorough man.

It was a simple matter to find a Yamanaka, it wasn't a tiny clan. They got requests like this on a weekly basis in war, so after a few cursory questions the young man quickly delved into the minds of my three captives. He wrote a few paragraphs on the information he had discovered, recommending that I immediately informed Sakumo.

Once I saw the contents, I knew why, "You're coming with me; you're the one who knows the info."

"Of course, my CO will understand."

"And the captives?" He asked me.

"We don't have the resources to keep or transport them, so…" I broke their necks while they slept, the Yamanaka mind technique having taken its toll. Obviously I couldn't leave the bodies around, so I beckoned over a few of the garrison forces, ordering them to take care of the bodies. They grumbled, but discipline was half an army, and Konoha knew it; they took care of the bodies.

I ran over to Sakumo's tent, knocking and informing him of my urgent purpose. I was let in without trouble, information being a top commodity.

"So, what's this about?" Sakumo asked, ignoring any customary greetings.

"Yamanaka Kai here mind-walked three prisoners I had taken, he can tell you the rest himself."

Kai came forward, "The main information is as follows: Iwagakure is poisoning every well within their reach, even ones behind our position. Large forces of stealthy troops seem to be doing this while we speak."

Just then a runner, panting, came in, "Sir! Almost half of Shinja's men are coughing blood!"

"We'll have to dig our own wells, how many earth manipulators do we have?" Hatake formulated a plan quickly, then turned back to the runner, "Tell everyone that Iwa is poisoning the wells, water should not be drank without thorough testing. Go man!"

"I myself am an earth manipulator."

"Do your best then, I'll gather up and inform the rest of the camp." Hatake ran out of his tent, waking those who slept and yelling out commands.

Meanwhile, I was picking out a suitable spot for our first well. To close to Sakumo's tent was out of the question, assassins could take advantage of that. Even with such restrictions I quickly found a place where I could dig without worry.

The ground began moving away as a well dug itself, a great pit opening upon the surface of the earth. Once I had made it sufficiently deep I crawled down to check for water.

Nothing, darn, this wasn't cheap, I couldn't dig more than two. I walked a quarter mile away before trying again, digging another pit with my chakra.

The importance of water could not be ignored, if we went without drinking water, for even a day, our fighting capability would be greatly inhibited.

By now the whole camp was up, company commanders ordering their troops calmly on what to do. Sakumo took charge of my own company, heading out to cut down poisoners.

I crawled down my second hole, hoping that I might find some precious water as my chakra-depleted body complained fiercely over the exertion. Let me tell you, going down a hundred-foot hole into the unknown wasn't easy.

Fortunately, this well had struck water, if not a whole lot of it. I sighed in relief, climbing back out with a heart less heavy. Water was worth more than gold given the right situation, Iwa had gotten smart. It also showed that they had no intention of taking over the ground we currently occupied, at least for a while.

Those in the army who knew Doton were tasked with rapidly excavating wells, while the rest of the garrison dug them by hand. Within a couple of days the crisis was averted with minimal casualties, still, it went to show just how bad war is.

Operations resumed as normal within a week, Iwa's plan largely thwarted by Kai's timely discovery.

**XXXX**

Months passed, men dying around me, but my own skills and brains, along with the loyalty of my subordinates, kept me safe from harm. Word had come from home, Fugaku was quite married, a certain Mikoto now my sister-in-law.

I wrote back, sending my greetings to her, and congratulating my brother. I wrote my love to Mother and Father, informing the latter on the state of the war, while I sent word to the former of living conditions in the war camp.

Although teams I was on never had this trouble, it seemed in general Konoha's fire techniques lost to the firm dirt of Iwa. This resulted in a mounting casualty list; Iwa however, took almost one for one losses overall. This was a result of the efforts of Konoha's super ninja, Hatake Sakumo; whatever mission he led succeeded, much to the chagrin of Iwa. Iwagakure lacked such a reliable hero, relying on a stronger rank and file.

Today was the day for learning to walk in the air. Or, more precisely, to learn to _float _on sandals of sand, much cheaper than a sand-skiff, which exhausted one's reserves of chakra rather rapidly.

The premise was simple, make sandals of sand around my feet and control it, boom, now I'm floating.

It worked better than any man could have dreamed, minus the first few embarrassing balancing issues. This was solved by adding bracelets filled with sand as stabilizers on my wrists, so that I wouldn't fall from a mile high.

For added speed I could lie flat in the air, zooming along like super-man. For added coolness I could add smoke from my feet and hands, acting like ironman. Unfortunately, I could only do such fun things once before they got old, the whole deal just becoming another useful technique.

Of course, one doesn't stand in the sky above an entire camp-full of observant ninja and no one hear of it. Sakumo came out and congratulated me on the achievement, immediately conscripting me for some specialized work.

The mission? Simple, World War III would see the implementation of bombers. That's right, bombers; I personally would fly above the Iwa camp, dropping my pay-load of super-charged explosive tags.

This required a crash-course review of physics, because of wind I'd need to drop my bombs somewhere to the east of the actual camp. The actual distance east I would need to go was cut by 90%, due to my own brilliance: the SEF, using sealed dirt, I would make high-speed projectiles that would race at an incredible pace to the ground.

The plan was set in motion on June 8, the same day I completed my flight training.

"Nanashi-san, if you feel you can't make it, come back immediately, we'd hate to lose you." Sakumo cautioned me.

"Of course sir, I wouldn't dream of suicide."

"Heh. That's good, now go get 'em!"

I took off, loaded to the max with timed explosive tags. Such genius' who could quickly do calculations had quickly complied an approximate flight time. It was an operation conducted in total haste, so that Iwagakure might receive no warning.

I took off, saluting to the men and women who saw me off. Once I really got off the ground I was struck with how strong the wind was up there, how small the tents in our camp really were. How tiny the distance between the opposing factions, I wobbled slightly, a gust unsettling me as I frantically re-stabilized.

I soon got the hang of high-flying, heading over to my objective. I unsealed just enough dirt for a SEF at a time, hurling the things down at the Iwa camp until my entire stock of explosive tags was spent.

I won't lie and say something like I leveled the entire camp, nowhere near it. A good deal of the tags exploded in mid-air rather harmlessly, still more missed the camp entirely, and others buried themselves in the ground before exploding, these ones did some damage, but not much.

I'd say I did horribly, but one had to remember that a single explosive tag, even a super-charged one, still isn't all that explosive, in the grand scheme of things.

I'm sure I killed and wounded a few, and threw the entire camp into confusion but that was it. We'd probably get only one more shot at this before Iwa got smart and started living in caves and bunkers.

I floated down to our own camp, rather wobbly by the time I arrived. This was a direct result of spending far too much chakra on SEFs, but I survived, which was the main thing.

"Minimal success, sir. We need a better explosive with contact detonation." I informed Sakumo formally.

"I see. I'll send word to Hokage-sama, with the resources of Konoha at our back I'm sure we can cook up something, good work. Get rested up, once you're recovered you'll be scouting."

"Yes sir." I stumbled to my tent, entering it and immediately hitting the hay.

A fast runner was dispatched, informing the Hokage of my new technique. Word came back in due time that Konoha's seal masters, Jiraiya, and the budding Minato and Kushina, along with one other, were working on it with fuinjutsu, while Orochimaru pursued more scientific explosives.

My own skill with seals was too low; I couldn't even make explosive tags on par with the ones I'd used on my bombing run. Well, before I used them that is; I copied the design with my Sharingan, and with my manual dexterity it'd be no trouble to make some.

Now I spent my hours floating in the sky, suppressing my chakra while I observed Iwagakure's troop movements with a spyglass. It allowed Konoha to pick off several patrols and small groups, tipping the balance in Konoha's favor.

I had indeed made an impact now.

The days of peaceful scouting eventually came to an end, an Iwa shinobi finally spotting me. Scouting was more dangerous now, though only barely. Most ninja couldn't use techniques that had enough range to even reach me up in the sky.

Of course, that didn't stop them from trying. Ohnoki himself eventually caught word of it, coming out of his village to turn the tide back in its favor. It worked frighteningly well; he was an extremely powerful shinobi, not yet past his prime, although his age would insinuate he was.

His pitiful Dust Release couldn't catch me, unfortunately for him.

Konoha responded, sending out Jiraiya and Minato, who obviously came with Kakashi, who was, if I do say so, overjoyed to see his dad. Sakumo felt the same way, the two of them catching up while Minato and I met up.

"So Minato, I hear you're finally catching up?"

"I was never behind." He crossed his arms.

"You look less like a little kid now." I observed casually.

"I suppose, I don't feel like a kid either."

"You won't once you see what men do to each other in full, its bad stuff."

"I won't try to imagine."

"So, tell me you took a page out of my book and brought some good food from home."

Minato grinned, "Of course. I'm not forgetful, you know."

"Ah, that's nice. Come on in, you can tell me all about home."

As we ate a hot meal, prepared in Konoha restaurants, Minato informed me on what he knew of the situation back home, telling all the anecdotes and hilarious stories. It reminded me just how much time had passed outside this little world, where all was blood and death.

Time seemed slower up here, not so many unique happenings I suppose. Everything was all the same, go out, kill or be killed, come home. Go out, scout safely or die, and come home. Just repeating over and over like a broken record.

I suppose it spoke of how long I had been out here that I considered this little tent 'home'.

XXXX

**Authors Note: So, not a whole lot of progression here, just a wee bit of character development and a new technique.**

**I've given this chapter the pet name Chapter Worst, but you let me know what you'd call it. Love, hate, review, but good heavens I don't do previews.**

**Until next time, Iamnonofyouare**


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: That's right I'm still at it, telling all of you that I don't own Naruto or its characters.**

**Chapter 20, War V**

With one of the legendary Sannin present, the war tipped back in Konoha's favor. It was a slow business however, both sides now too wary of losses or chance encounters with S-rank ninja. So casualties slowed considerably, for both sides. The war had ground to a near total halt, each faction watching the other closely while they fought buzzing flies.

Unfortunately, research into explosives for actually effective bombing runs hadn't been very successful, so while I _could _fly, it wasn't doing too much good beyond scouting. Ground demolition teams now had more options for heavy explosives at least.

The fact that Konoha wasn't well liked was rapidly threatening to become an issue. Mizu seemed interested in attacking, and Kumo was hostile to pretty much everyone.

To counter this, Konoha had begun to try for an alliance with Suna. If successful, this would allow Konoha to ignore the southern front, letting Suna take care of regular missions while every available Konoha shinobi joined the fight.

Unfortunately, as time went by, it became clear that Suna was not interested. Instead, Suna ignored other countries, sending groups of ninja to annoy Iwa. Since this was actually helping Konoha, the emissaries left satisfied.

The Mizu problem was very real, however, forcing Konoha to divert a few forces from the Iwa front in preparation for the inevitable hostilities. This Mizu force had the honor of containing both Tsunade, and Orochimaru.

With two legendary ninja who were worth an army in themselves present, Mizu could be kept at bay, despite its propensity for annoying bloodlines.

**XXX**

Life was boring, despite nearly daily talks with Minato, who spent his time off working, training Kakashi, something I occasionally joined in on, or with me. Or sleeping, eating, or even writing letters to his sweetheart, Kushina.

A long time passed in this manner, somewhere along the way I decided that my long hair was too much weight, making it harder to fly. It wasn't efficient, so I cut it down, my hair now framing my face down past my jaw in the front, gradually shortening about an inch until it came to the actual back of my head, where it again gained length.

My figure had filled out some more, and I looked much less like a boy, my eyes having seen many things. Ninja exploding in front of one's face could give a man a harder look.

I was now twenty, having spent four years of my life on the front without a single break. Few had been out for such a stint longer, and the Hokage knew it. So, on this very fine spring day, I was going back home just in time to see the sakura trees bloom.

Of course, the real reason I was being allowed back home was my impending status as an uncle. I hadn't even met my sister-in-law yet, so Fugaku's insistence wasn't surprising. So, with the wind in my ear, I flew back to Konoha.

From the air, the village didn't look much different, the same wall surrounding it, the same monument watching over it. And, as far as I could tell, the very same buildings were filling it.

I touched down at my home, the familiar scent of the Uchiha compound greeting my nose as I knocked on the door. An older than I remembered figure opened the door for me, allowing me to step inside. I was aware that Fugaku and Mikoto lived in a separate, nearby, home, for obvious reasons. But I expected they would be hanging around here.

"Ah, Mother, you've aged." I told her bluntly.

"Not nearly as much as you have my boy," She hugged me, "Come inside, you're early, but everyone is here."

I came into the sitting area, where Father watched as Fugaku and the one who had to be Mikoto tossed baby names back and forth at each other.

"Father," I greeted him first, respectfully, "Brother, and you must be my sister."

"Ah! Nanashi, you're here." Fugaku got up and hugged me, then spread his hand out to indicate his wife, who was sitting in an arm-chair, "This is my wife, Mikoto."

"It is an honor to make your acquaintance; my brother is a lucky man."

"You flatter me; I hardly look good eight months pregnant."

"Well, if that is your command." I smiled, "So, how is everything?"

"All is well here, son. We weren't expected you until at least tomorrow."

"I flew right over, I'm sure Nii-san could fly too, unless he hasn't kept up?"

"Oh, I've tried, but my level will never exceed yours."

"That's good then, a student should not surpass his teacher, you know?" I teased playfully.

"You're one to talk about such a thing."

"True, I suppose I cannot argue with such a comeback."

I socialized with my family, talking about such little things as how that annoying cat had finally died, or someone got a bird they were addicted to, or how so-and-so's family came into a fortune. They were clearly avoiding talking about death and the war, trying to keep it from my mind. Honestly I didn't care one way or the other.

But it showed _they _cared about me caring, which was more than enough for me. Family was something to be treasured, because one day I'd lose it, or maybe even toss it away.

I'll admit I'd been stricken with just how fleeting mortal life was, and I wasn't of the opinion I was ok with that. Mostly because I knew it wasn't necessary. My thoughts had often turned to Akatsuki, and how so very many of its members had achieved some degree of immortality, at least enough to stop them from dying due to old age.

Stealing Hidan's technique might be simple, or hard, but I didn't want to risk my mental state to whatever demonic sorcery it entailed. As for Kakuzu? I wasn't even sure how his worked or anything, just that the man was around Hashirama's age, too old for an active ninja.

More promising was Orochimaru, the prospect of three year switch outs was not appealing in the least, but I had a theoretical workaround.

Sasori's method would be the best, certainly, but I would first have to convince him to teach me, an unlikely prospect if ever one existed. Still, it was the method I favored. So to impress Sasori, I'd need to show myself capable of his art: Puppetry.

Of course, this option was already open, and I didn't intend to let this break go to waste. While deployed, I never had the chance to learn much, beyond copying a few techniques from hostile, and friendly, shinobi.

So, while I sat around, waiting for the Hokage to make up his mind about where to send me next, I'd learn how to make puppets and control them. Starting with the one I'd been given.

I'd stashed it in my library, which my family had left respectfully untouched. I picked it out looking it over while mentally listing exactly what I'd need. Wood, saws, nails, brushes, senbon, blades, a carving tool…

It was all quite a production, but at least it looked interesting.

In the morning I got straight to work, buying materials and building myself a warehouse with Doton. A workshop really, somewhere I'd actually do all the work. Waterproofing the roof would require a more professional touch, so I hired the Uchiha workmen.

While they worked with tar and whatever else that was cheap and handy, I began constructing my puppet. Of course, all this didn't go unnoticed.

"Do you ever take a break?" Fugaku asked, glancing around the newest building in the Uchiha compound.

"I take such breaks as the human body requires to keep functioning." I replied swiftly, looking back to my blueprint for a second while I whittled down some wood.

"Right. Look, you'll work yourself into the ground."

"And then I'll pick myself back up and keep going; failure is a part of success." I intentionally ignored what he meant in favor of a possible meaning.

"Nanashi… sometimes you've got to stop and slow down." He was clearly trying to explain something.

"I have no reason to." I finished a pivot joint, completing a leg of the puppet, it was ugly, but it was a start.

"Isn't there more to life then all this?"

"There is. It's what I'm getting to."

"Is this necessary?"

I looked at Fugaku, almost glaring, "I never do anything unnecessary that does not require more effort than speaking."

"Brother, I want you to be happy."

"And I am currently unconcerned over my happiness, as long as you're in good health and not at odds with your circumstances, what need is there for this?"

"And I'm not happy that you don't care."

"And you caring is enough to make me happy, what's your point?"

"Nanashi, life isn't about dying, or even living, it's about spending time with your loved ones." He said softly.

I pointed my knife at him, "Now that's just frivolous and soft, where do you of all people get off thinking like that?"

"I don't know, I think I do a good job balancing my work and my life, what about you?"

"If I say my work is my life I'd be lying," He brightened at that, "But Fugaku, I do this because I enjoy it, I cannot help but enjoy it, it's what I do."

"So this is how you want to live?"

I got contemplative at that, "This wasn't my first choice, and a long time ago I'd hate any of this, but now? Yeah, for sure."

"Then outstrip the competition, and don't forget dinner."

"I won't!" I waved him out, turning back to my work.

I spent several days this way, putting my puppet together in my spare time, and spending some family time as well. Eventually, the puppet was completed, looking altogether inhuman, but with retractable blades, poison senbon launchers, and remote activated storage scrolls that could contain just about anything.

Moving it around was a pain at first, but I took to making it come with me everywhere, always walking around at my command. I experimented with different ways of holding the strings, and found that while fingers were by far the easiest, other body parts could be used as well, just so long as one could control the length of the string directly.

With chakra control, eventually one could make it to where one could control a thousand puppets, all without moving at all. That day was not today, however.

I spawned shadow clones, my mental state such that they already knew to not play overly rough. I sparred with them for a while, puppet against clones.

Unfortunately for me, my clones knew everything about the puppet, and I was bad at handling it, so I was defeated rather promptly. Many times.

Before I was anywhere near mastery, or even final adjustments, on my puppet, Itachi was born. A boy, and named Itachi, so no flags for AU on that score. He seemed average enough to me, my Sharingan looking him over critically the first chance I had to hold him.

"Huh, seems like a normal baby to me." I handed him back to his mother.

She looked at me rather askance, "And why would you think he was anything but normal?" She asked, in a slightly peeved tone.

Now a man really can't be in a woman's bad graces, so I hatched a remarkable plan to get myself back into the 'nice-guy' list, "Eh, I just figured that the son of such a beautiful woman would look different." My tone was quite natural.

She blushed just a tad, "Your skills at flattery haven't gotten worse because of the war, that's for sure."

I took a look of joking seriousness, "You underestimate me entirely, why before the war…" I looked down at her and smiled, "I barely knew a single lady."

"As I expected. Now hand Itachi to his father."

I picked the baby up carefully, safely depositing him into my brother's arms. I already knew Itachi to be a prodigy, so my mind was already going over how best to take advantage of his intelligence. It would be no trouble to get him as my student, if I wanted that.

His character, from what little I had known, and even less I remembered, seemed to be one that was loyal, so him keeping secrets was a given. Still, this blasted war didn't promise to come to a close any time soon.

Well, thinking of the future was well and good, but I was lucky to even be alive.

On a more important note, Obito was out of my current reach, now being a member of team Minato. Since I was a rather close friend of said teleporting blonde, I could still train or interfere with him a little. Nonetheless, time was rapidly running out, Obito was but a child when Madara got him, and right now he was nine.

Two years before I entered the crunch era, a dangerous time was approaching.

Just another reason to learn puppeteering, a way to fight without endangering myself. If and when Madara came out, I'd need to be ready. But one thing was for sure, I wasn't about to let him, or his machinations, destroy my family.

And to stop him, I'd be right there with him, every step of the way, my own plots and ideas countering his. Not that my mind was nearly as bright and clever as Madara's so if it came right down to it, I had one last card to play.

My mind wandered back to reality, where Fugaku was gently swaying back and forth with Itachi in his arms, "Well, you are a father now brother, raise him well."

"You sound as if you were leaving right away."

"I expect Hokage-sama will dispatch me within a month, yes."

"That's unfortunate."

"I doubt I'll be sent back to the Iwa front, they've gotten good at avoiding my talents."

"Have they now? I suppose it is the human way to adapt."

"Indeed, so I'm guessing I'll be sent off the fight either River, or Water, Rain is still a distinct possibility though."

"What of Suna?" My brother asked.

It was true, recently relations had turned sour with Suna, a result of a couple of annihilated patrols on both sides, right on the border. There was little question that each village was trying to take down the other as far as possible before open conflict inevitably ensued, "My technique certainly poses an incredible advantage in the desert. So much so I wouldn't be surprised if they finally called you off the police force and sent you out as well."

Fugaku frowned, he was loyal to his village, but he'd grown attached to the home life after all these years, "If I must, I shall."

"Well then, why don't you and I spend the rest of the day working on your sand control?"

"I'd like that." He replied rather blandly, but no less warmly.

We bid good-bye to the others, taking off with a shunshin to the Uchiha training grounds. It certainly was a useful rapid movement technique, and as I had discovered, particularly suited to a doujutsu wielder.

"Unseal your sand." I ordered, popping into teacher mode.

Fugaku did so immediately, both of us always carrying around some quantity of sealed sand. The stuff hit the ground, making a somewhat large pile.

There was enough for both of us to execute the exercise I had in mind, "Now," Sand came up as I jumped into the sky, catching me as I came back down horizontally with my hands behind my head. "It's like going to the beach." Hey, nobody said I couldn't show off.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, if you do it really well you'll feel so comfortable you'll want to sleep." I wasn't kidding, with superb control one could adjust the makeshift bed to perfectly suit ones contours; it was amazingly relaxing.

Fugaku didn't jump up like me; instead he stood there and allowed his sand to scoop him off the ground. He imitated my position, his face marred by an expression of concentration. It seemed I really was a mile ahead.

We lay there until Fugaku's bed broke down, covering him in sand as he crashed to the ground. I smiled at that, jumping out of my own sand bed.

"Not bad, you lasted the better part of thirty minutes."

"Ugh, what next?"

A platform of sand formed in front of me, hovering a foot above the ground. I stepped on, arms crossed, looking the epitome of casual.

"We spar like this."

"No kidding huh." A platform of his own formed, and he stepped on.

"No jutsu just yet, it tends to be hard to juggle both the sand and jutsu, not nearly impossible though."

"Uh huh," He sped towards me, his own control quite decent. We sparred, Fugaku occasionally falling to the ground while I freely ran circles around him. By the end his time between failures was nearly triple what it had been before.

"See? It's not too hard once you get used to it."

I gathered up Nii-san's sand, depositing it all back into his scroll. After this we headed back for dinner, both of us tired. Fugaku was in an only slightly worse condition, his own chakra reserves superior to mine, somehow. Still, I recovered chakra much faster than most, even him.

After dinner, I left to spar against myself, pitting clones against my puppet. Once again, my clones showed just how superior to a mere puppet they were, in chakra cost however, they were much worse. My proficiency increased every time, my clones' perspective coming to me when the spar was over, it was a huge benefit.

Shadow clone training was useful, but it was somewhat less effective than doing it yourself. It wasn't something I took advantage of very often, preferring the hands-on approach. Nonetheless, I figured now was the time to start using the exploit on a much larger scale.

In the morning, I sent off some clones to the forest around Konoha to pick up some cheap lumber, working on my water manipulation while I waited. It was something I'd started on a couple years back, finally admitting I surely needed to work on the next nature I wanted, ice.

The first step was already done, ice control, now I needed to learn water, and then learn how to rapidly switch between the two states. At that point I'd be able to really say I could use Hyoton.

My tutelage had, however, gone extremely slowly, a result of mostly being off scouting, and I couldn't control water without hand-seals yet. Still, it was coming along.

Eventually, my clones returned with lumber, just as the surface on the river rose a little, my chakra influencing it. The water splashed as my control slipped, and I turned to my clones.

I dispelled them one by one, absorbing the memories properly. I then created replacement clones, who now knew exactly what the properties of each wood piece were. I sent this new group off to the workshop, telling them to assemble puppets that they fancied.

Trusting myself to make something interesting wasn't hard for me. After all, I knew my mind like no other mind I'd ever encountered. It was why it hadn't broken yet, the things one comes in contact with… Sometimes it's better to leave things unsaid.

I returned my attention to the river, once again watching in wonder as the surface heaved and sank. Chakra was truly incredible, and it was amazing that an otherwise foolish species like humanity had harnessed it, even if only in part.

XXXX

A month and a half later and I received my orders, the Sandaime Kazekage had disappeared, and his loyal ninja were searching everywhere for him. With such a situation, and with sand manipulators like myself and Fugaku under Konoha's command…

The Hokage had made the decision to jump start hostilities with Suna, sending myself and Fugaku, with a team of genin and a few chunin, to attack. Our orders went so far as to permit attacking Sunagakure itself.

To say I felt excitement would be an understatement, my heart beating annoying fast in a familiar nervousness. This was the same feeling I had when I got ready to attack my ever-superior brother in a video game, back in my previous life.

I only hoped I got the chance to feel the resulting relieved exultation at the end.

The team, under Fugaku's nominal lead, set out immediately, journeying to the border with Suna as fast as possible.

Apparently, so many Suna-nin were searching the dessert that they had no border patrols at all. This called for an immediate decision, and I decided we would push on to Sunagakure, leveling whatever we could with sand.

Nii-san and I easily dealt with any ninja we came across, the sweltering summer heat being our most dangerous foe. The troops were mostly kids, barely out of the academy, who hardly even knew what a dissected brain looked like. If at all.

Our water supplies were thankfully plentiful, a direct result of my now public liquid storage scroll. Still, it wouldn't last forever, we needed to get in, and get out.

Eventually, we came to Sunagakure, ninja already lining the parapet that surrounded the sunken village. Fugaku and I heralded the assault, swamping the entire defensive terrace in sand. I can only imagine how many perished there, crushed and suffocating.

Next we turned our eyes to the expansive village, dumping tons of sand into it, leaving both of us nearly exhausted.

Sunagakure had had virtually no warning whatsoever, the earliest information they received having been a sensor we had missed, as I learned later. Hours were all they had to prepare themselves, but with so many ninja gone in search of the Sandaime, few were left to care for the village.

But as we hastily made our retreat, golden dust pursued us.

"I am Rasa, and you shall pay for attacking Suna!" He was a young man, the short and spiky brown hair with a somewhat hard look.

My eyes widened when I realized just how _much_ gold dust was after us, "How rich _are _you?" I blurted out, still running away.

We could no more outrun the stuff than reach the moon, so I turned, facing this Rasa with my sand. I yelled for my brother and the group to keep going. But I had used far too much chakra attacking Suna, and my defenses would not last long.

"Is this how I am to die?" I asked, wisps of gold dust touching me now.

"No, I refuse it!" I delved under the sand, filling up on air before I did so. I tunneled away until I could last no longer, then I surfaced cautiously, Sharingan spinning.

I looked around, pleasantly surprised that Rasa was nowhere to be seen.

My heart sank as my mind supplied possible reasons for this.

Either I was just too far away, or he had already dealt with my brother and the army, and was already back in Suna, hailed as a hero. It would be sad if that was the case indeed, to come back and tell my family that I had lost Fugaku.

I unsealed provisions, eating and drinking before heading off to Konoha.

I didn't encounter anything on my way, at least not in the desert, all was blank. The sun burning the back of my neck didn't even register, my mind already convinced Fugaku was nothing more than a crushed pulp back in the desert.

I was too low on chakra to do anything other than walk, blaming myself wouldn't change anything. Telling myself that didn't make it hurt any less though.

I knew the world wasn't a happy place, the chances I'd come back to a happily smiling Nii-san was abysmally low. Heck, the idiot probably sealed his own fate and ran back to help me out while I was still above ground.

I knew these things happened, but I _hated _it. I just wanted this conflict to end; this was just turning into a blood-feud. It didn't help that somewhere out there Madara was alive, plotting how he was going to change the world into whatever sick dream he had.

"Is this life!?" I cried to the night sky, not caring that a hostile might hear me, "Is this what was intended, for man to kill man forever?" There was no answer, of course.

"Fine. I won't fight it then, I'll just kill better than the rest of them." My face twisted up, turning into a visage of grim determination.

In this state I marched back to Konoha, purposely taking longer than I could have. That way if Fugaku arrived he'd surely be first, no life at home questioning if he was alive or not.

I came back, thirteen days after I had left on the mission. I plodded into the Hokage's office, not waiting for the guard to announce me, or the secretary to admit me.

Danzo was in there already, but I didn't care, my usual polite manner no longer about me. I walked right up to Sarutobi and asked the question, "Did any of the others make it back?"

Hiruzen frowned deeply, in a long-suffering way, before he spoke, "I'm afraid so," I didn't allow such a foolish emotion as relief to enter my being just yet, "But Fugaku-kun was not among them."

I clenched my fists, anyone else and I would have forgiven him, but this, "Rasa will die at my hand." I knew revenge was stupid, I knew it wasn't logical, I knew it was suicidal. But sometimes knowledge doesn't stop us.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama; I'll have my report written by tomorrow."

I left, ignoring whatever words of pity or remorse, or other misplaced idiocy Hiruzen muttered, I wasn't in the mood. This sucked, why did it have to be Fugaku? He was a father for goodness sakes, a new father at that. It wasn't right that he didn't even have the chance to watch his child grow up, didn't even live long enough to see him _speak._

That settled it; I would treat Itachi as if he were my own child. He'd be clan head once Father stepped down anyway.

I returned to the Uchiha clan compound, refusing to dread breaking the news. News I supposed had already been broken, though by a less familiar face no doubt. Still, if I could take this long to return, so could Nii-san, right?

Whatever. I clicked the gate behind me, uncaring over the fact that I was as dirty as a pig. I walked the few remaining steps, entering my home.

I clenched my jaw, "Tadaima!" I called dully, waiting to see my family come running.

And come running they did, "Nanashi! You made it, we thought you were dead." My mother spoke first.

Mikoto cradled the child in her arms, looking back and forth rather obviously, "And Fugaku?" She'd clearly already made up her mind on the answer, but asked anyway.

"We were separated, I came back completely alone."

She crumpled to the ground, weeping into her child's chest.

"I won't lie; I find it unlikely he survived. At the same time, I myself escaped death by a miniscule margin."

My father was the only listening closely enough to respond, "Other than some grime you look fine."

"A man named Rasa came, he wielded gold dust on a large scale -Fugaku and I had already depleted our reserves- I couldn't fend him off. He almost got me, but I went underground. Fugaku may have done the same thing."

"I see, it's possible," Yuu conceded, wanting to believe it was true.

My mother was trying to comfort Mikoto, but I walked unobtrusively past, ignoring the conversation as I made my way to the bath. I really was starting to feel the dirt.

I washed myself thoroughly, enjoying three-hundred-and-sixty degree cleaning, a result of my water manipulation. Which, although not advanced, was easily enough to move sufficient water for cleaning.

So I enjoyed a long bath, consoling the side of me that hated laziness by practicing my water manipulation. It was one thing I truly did enjoy, a hot bath after a hard week's work.

XXXX

After three days of rest I was once again called off to war, the depleting numbers of real ninja severely limiting down-time. The Hokage was sick of it all, clearly, and was in negotiation with the Tsuchikage over a cease-fire.

It seemed it would happen, so I was being sent out once again to Kaze no Kuni, to deal with any sand-based retaliation. I was given two subordinates, a Hyuuga Hiashi, and Hironaka Kaede. I smiled a little when I saw that, it seemed our team was going to be reunited for a little while.

Since all of us were jonin, the mission had simply put 'Jonin Lounge' for meeting spot. It'd been a very long time since I'd been in that smoky hole. Still, I wasn't one to balk at any meeting site, even if it was as gruesome as the mortuary.

I journeyed to the prescribed location, meeting up with my rather powerful team. Kaede had always been the weak link, but her prowess was not to be underestimated. Hiashi on the other hand, his power was great, and I for one would not try to face him lightly.

I was the first to arrive, waiting all of sixty-four seconds for Kaede, and then a few seconds more for Hiashi. Hiashi had a blank face, as usual. I wouldn't be surprised if he won the best-poker-face award. Kaede was grinning slightly, her figure much more mature than when I had seen her last.

"I see you're both here. I assume you've double checked your gear?"

"Who do you think I am?" Kaede looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Hironaka-san." I answered flatly, "Good to see you Hiashi-san."

He spared me a glance, "Likewise."

"I have food and water, along with maps for everyone, in case you didn't bring one." I handed each member a water storage scroll and a map of our operations area, "Let's set out."

I got nods in response, so we set out for the Land of Wind, leaving the trees behind us in a couple days. The desert was as dead as a man caught in a sand-storm, nothing but heat-waves moved.

Hiashi activated his Byakugan for a minute, scanning a broad stretch of ground. Nothing interesting was around, so we journeyed a mile deep into Fire territory, setting up camp next to a stream. It was crazy, the way sand was so abruptly cut off, giving way to more lush greenery in a few meters.

We took watches like good ninja, but nothing happened during the night.

After breakfast, we spent some time in the desert, searching for any sign on Suna-nin. With Hiashi's Byakugan we could cover a lot of ground, we'd scouted many miles of desert.

We set up camp anew, this time remaining in the desert. No one came past, the closest thing to an encounter being a peddler on the very edge of visible land.

I took off flying this morning, looking around for an hour before I found what I wanted; a Suna patrol. It was insanely close to the village, pointing out just how many ninja Fugaku and I had dealt with.

I zipped back to my team in half the time, thirsty, but not boiling. Going fifty or sixty miles an hour was like a very powerful fan.

Kaede was very bored, and she clearly wished she herself could fly. Hiashi was trying to divine how I did it, if I had to guess. We pursued the patrol, catching up after two and a half hours.

It was an eight man team, with two puppeteers. Hiashi and Kaede dealt with the other six, leaving the puppet wielders to me at my request.

"Arrogance, you think you can match two of Suna's proud puppeteer brigade?" A teen asked, clearly proud of his own skill.

"Careful, he's a jonin; he might be hiding some techniques." The speaker was a female, having very light brown hair, in her late teens or early twenties. She had a large scroll on her back.

I activated my Sharingan, wanting to observe exactly how their puppets stack up to my own.

A humanoid figure with four arms charged, while a small rat-like puppet tried to circle me.

I played around with the humanoid, keeping a subtle eye out for any tricks from the rat.

The puppeteer clearly couldn't manage four-armed taijutsu as well as he would have liked, but it was nonetheless impressive. Eventually, the hands popped off, being replaced by whip-like swords of a very thin sort.

It was a good idea; a tall puppet with a war-whip might work; if I just made the left arm slightly larger I could fit quite a large ball on its end…

The rat sneaked up, its mouth opening for a second, and a nearly invisible substance came from its mouth. Ah, poison, tragically cliché.

I moved away from the poison, crushing the rat puppet with sand as I leapt over it. It was a simple thing I could already replicate.

I'd gotten all I needed from four-arms, so I burnt it to a crisp with Great Fireball while I held it in place with my own chakra strings. I drew my katana, shunshining to, and running the kid through before he could react.

"Tell me you have more than a rat?" I look around, wary of tricks.

She grit her teeth, "I have more alright!" She took the scroll off of her back, unsealing a very realistic looking puppet. It took the form of a young man.

The thing pointed its arm at me, shooting a senbon needle with incredible speed, although I dodged it.

"Incredible! How does the launcher work? Ha! I shall have plenty of time to find out!" The sand crept up behind the lady, surrounding her head and turning it a full 360. No one lived through that, not even a puppeteer.

I took the scroll, sealing up the puppet and putting it with my own collection. I'd enjoy deciphering the secrets it contained, or rather, my clones would. Really, why had no one stolen puppets before?

XXXX

**Authors Note: Let's jump right into clarifications, I'm not saying if Fugaku is really dead. I intentionally didn't describe the puppets my clones made. What else? If I missed anything, feel free to ask me, I'll reply just as soon as I see your questions. Aha, I got it, the time skip; since nothing cannon is really happening in this time, well, I wasn't going to bore you all with too much war filler.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter's twists.**

**Review, hate, love, quit, face-palm, whatever,**

**And in case anyone ever wonders XXX and **XXXX **mean the same thing, nothing deep going on here.**

**Your favorite author, Iamwhononofyouare**


	21. Chapter 21 Loss, or Gain?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything else Kishimoto owns. **

**Chapter 21**

We spent a few days in like manner, picking off patrols and then retreating a few miles. Eventually, we'd have to go back to Konoha, but I wanted a rematch. I wanted to see how I really stacked up to Rasa, I wanted him dead.

So we replenished our water and food in the Land of Fire, so that we might return all the more secure. When we returned, no one was anywhere near our usual hunting grounds; not very surprising.

So we expanded our purview, picking off a few ninja in our new location. Four days later, after we'd killed another group, Rasa appeared. But this time he wore a very special hat.

"So _you're _the Yondaime Kazekage, the gold dust ought to have tipped me off." Still, my mental image of the Yondaime was nothing like Rasa. I was happy he had come, and he'd only brought a single ANBU pair no less.

Cheh, average Anbu had nothing on my team. I made hand motions to my team, telling them to deal with the Anbu members.

I faced the Kazekage; "Tell me, Suna-nin," It was fun to see the way referring to him as a simple Suna-nin offended all of the hostiles, "Did you kill a man with black hair, an Uchiha, in our last encounter?"

"I had a feeling we'd meet again, so I saved this for you." Rasa smirked slightly, showing me around a gallon of bloody gold dust.

I refused to let emotions rule me as I saw the sight, consoling that side of me with the fact that it could be anyone's blood. Not that I really expected Fugaku to ever turn up, or even considered Rasa a liar.

"I see; then let me show your village the same thing!" I roared, the desert itself rising with my voice.

"Ichibi… How?" The Kazekage's eyes widened, utterly flabbergasted by my control over sand, even though he'd seen it before. Then his expression changed to one of enlightenment, "So _you're _the Flying Sand Devil!"

An embarrassing nickname an Iwa-nin tagged me with I'm afraid.

"That's me." I demonstrated why I was called as such, levitating into the air. My sand led the conflict, surrounding Rasa on every possible side.

But it didn't work, incredibly, his gold dust pushed back with greater force, my control slipping for a split-second as he broke free. Dust immediately sped for me, but I soared up and away; distracting my opponent by making the sand under his feet give way. Gold nearly reached me, but I swatted it away with sand.

Then Rasa got smart, trying out flying as his gold dust caught him up into the air. But it was stupid of him to try to learn flying in combat, although necessary. He couldn't exactly stay on the ground which I commanded any longer, you see.

I began crafting a sand tornado, that was shaped like a cylinder rather than a cone albeit, but a tornado nonetheless. With the Kazekage as its epicenter, the grand whirling mass of sand encroached, making tighter and tighter circles, and speeding up as a result.

Rasa made a small dome of gold around himself; thick enough to withstand my tornado, but that was the plan. He'd taken to the ground for stability now. But with sand whistling through the air, and his vision cut off, he had no way of knowing where I was.

I positioned myself on the side of the tornado opposite my teammates, forming a very special jutsu in my right hand.

Sharingan spinning, I charged, the sand that should have pulverized me going around my figure instead.

"Rasengan!" I yelled, plunging into the dome with my arm. The gold was solid enough, but the Rasengan swiftly made entrance, aiming to destroy the enemy in front of me.

The Kazekage was taken by surprise, but the technique hadn't been properly aimed, and it only took off his bicep, along with half his upper right arm bone. The man howled in the face of such agony, but possessed the presence of mind to crush my own right hand with gold-dust as I attempted to extricate it from the dome.

I saw red, in the form of my bloody pulp of a hand. Darn, that put hand-seals out of the question for the foreseeable future. The bones were totally crushed, it wasn't something anyone could fix, maybe if Tsunade was right here, but still doubtful.

I regenerated the skin and blood vessels, to stop bleeding, and retreated a few paces, the tornado falling to the ground.

The dome came down then, revealing a Rasa who was trying to stop his bleeding, eventually settling on cutting off his blood flow to the arm with gold dust.

"Heh, I think I dished out more than I got." I muttered, loud enough for the man to hear.

I formed two discs of spinning chakra, attaching them to my left hand's fingers with chakra strings.

Silently, the death discs travelled to the Kazekage, easily slicing through his hasty gold-dust defense. But the man was a Kage for a reason, and he dodged. At this point, I once again took to the skies, ignoring the pain in my right hand.

I formed a third disc, sending it out as well. The three circled and threatened the Kazekage on every side, my own changing position preventing effective counter-attacks.

My chakra stores were getting lower, and I had no doubt that Rasa had plenty left in him. I gazed to my two teammates, who were silently watching the whole affair. I supposed Hiashi had seen the Rasengan with his blasted Byakugan, but I had bigger things to worry about.

Eventually, Rasa caught on to my pattern, exhausted from blood-loss and constant last second escapes.

But my Sharingan still spun, predicting his moves with considerable accuracy, despite the distance between us. The Yondaime began to receive wounds, and he knew it.

"I will not fall to you!" He roared, sending a spinning ball of gold at me, a rip-off of the Rasengan no doubt.

I dodged easily, having had to do far harder stunts against Iwa-nin before him. The man launched a veritable bombardment as he dodged the discs with renewed vigor.

He was beginning to slip; he thought that simply because I changed tactics I wouldn't ever use sand? I'd lulled him into my pace, making him forget where exactly he was standing.

My discs disappeared, but the sand at Rasa's feet covered them. His eyes widened, but it was far, far, too late. With a yell, and a scream from my enemy, I crushed his feet into a pulp, just like my hand. He wouldn't be walking any time soon.

Unfortunately, the Kazekage was a tough nut to crack, and his gold caught him up into the air, forcibly erecting him to a vertical position.

I wasn't quite out of tricks however. I formed invisible, that is, made wholly of spiritual chakra, discs in the number of two, and sent them to his position while a great quantity of dust came for me. The discs became visible for a split-second as they cut through this golden wall, and then vanished once more.

Before the gold reached me, Rasa lacked both legs, and a head. Or half a head I suppose, my aim had been slightly off and I'd caught him in the forehead.

The gold fell just short of me, and I lightly glided down to the ground. Truly, I could not have asked for a more favorable place for me to fight anyone.

"I think that makes me S-rank." I told my team cheerfully as I touched down next to them.

"Yeah…" Kaede said, still awestruck by the sheer scale of our fight. Well, it had lasted a while.

I threw the two of them a couple scrolls each, "Why don't you make us all rich and gather up that gold? Before it _all _blows away."

Hiashi grumbled about menial labor, but made a shadow clone and handed it a scroll anyway. Huh, shadow clones; I looked down at my misshapen right hand, why hadn't I thought of that? On that note, why hadn't Rasa?

Oh well, clone-less battles are good too.

I watched my team gather up as much sand as they could for a minute; then pulled out a blank scroll and began my report. It was harder to write with my left hand than just make sand do the trick, so I used the latter method.

I listed the number of genin, chunin, and jonin killed. And then at the end proudly wrote: _One Kage._

The two finished a few minutes before me, but waited respectfully while I wrote my take on the mission.

"I hope you two are prepared to answer any questions Hokage-sama wants to ask you."

Hiashi gave me a _look,_ clearly ready for anything, and Hironaka simply nodded.

"Then let's get on home, I think we've done enough here."

We returned to Konoha at an appropriate pace, with me having to deal with the pain of bone splinters in a half-healed hand. It sucked, but an amputation was probably in order.

The Hokage sent me to a doctor for examination before he questioned me. Merely accepting my written report and sending me off to the hospital.

My mind was already going over prosthetics while a doctor examined my hand. My knowledge of puppeteering made the idea more welcomed then before.

I mentally made images of what I could do; going over extra modification or special armaments I could add. The more I considered it, the more I liked the idea of getting a prosthetic.

"Please tell you can amputate it safely."

"That's probably the best option. With a couple medic-nin and another surgeon it'll go off without a hitch."

"How far will you have to cut it back?"

He marked off around where I expected, "Wonderful, let's get to it immediately."

"You sound rather eager to lose a hand." He told me, face in an expression of 'ninja are crazy'.

"Oh, I've already lost it; I'm looking forward to a chance to replace it."

"I'm afraid Konoha doesn't have very advanced prosthetics." He told me, as if to make the news easier on me.

"Never you mind what Konoha has got, I'm making my own."

"Indeed?"

"Yes, that's not illegal is it?" I already knew it wasn't, my memory was quite good and I'd looked through just about every Konoha law book in my time, medical or not.

"No. But I would have you check it with a qualified medic before installing it."

"Certainly," I myself didn't pass inspection as a medic, so I'd have to see one of the many who worked here at the hospital. Not that I particularly minded.

"Excellent, we'll get your hand off in a jiffy; let me go roust some colleagues." The doctor informed me cheerfully, leaving me in the care of a nurse while he gathered up a few helpers.

In a few minutes he returned, a female surgeon and two medics following him at a slight distance. The man motioned for me to follow him, and we headed to 'Surgery Room Three'.

They stuck me with a needle, and when I woke up I didn't have a right hand. I was prescribed pain meds and such, and told when I'd need to come back to see if it was healing properly.

I was surprised they didn't keep me in the hospital the whole time, but I guessed the clan had something to do with it. Not that I was unhappy about it, it gave me a chance to get home and work on my prosthetic ideas.

So go home I did, waving at my family with my empty arm with a smile. It was incredibly funny, excluding hand-seals I wasn't inconvenienced very substantially. But the funniest by far was the faces they made, though I was sure they'd already received news.

"So, do I look good with my arm hand-less?"

My father raised a single brow, "Aren't you supposed to be depressed?"

"Me? No, as you can see, I am excited, I am eager to replace my human feature with something more… malleable. This way I can carry around four or so different hands and switch them out at will, although I suppose my kenjustu will have to be relearned."

Indeed, that was the main issue, kenjutsu. A sand, dirt, or prosthetic hand simply didn't have nerves, something rather intrinsic to wielding a weapon skillfully. Relearned however, not given up, it wasn't impossible.

My ideas for a hand had gone in many directions, the main problem being fastening it to my arm. Screwing it into my bone would be painful, and eventually very stupid. Merely tying it on with string wouldn't be nearly firm enough for combat, and gluing it on was out of the question.

But I had a solution, sear a metal cap onto the stump. It would be painful, but not impossible. With this method, I just needed to devise a way to attach a hand to the new cap, and then I could switch between hands at will.

Bolts would be the simplest, but I wanted a dual security for it. So, I would combine bolts with a screw mechanism, the hand would literally screw into the cap, and then be secured into place by a number of bolts.

My arm would be rather longer than natural by the end, but that was minor.

I was on the disabled list for now, so I had plenty of time to heal.

XXXX

One week after I was back, after I was cleared by the hospital, we had a very special visitor.

"Nii-san, you're alive." I was surprised, but I wasn't going to faint over it.

He smiled a tad, motioning to the hooded, and quite androgynous, figure behind him.

"So I am, but I'm more surprised you are." Well, it is the way of men to take their own situation for granted and leave others' to chance.

"Eh, I went under the ground. Later he took my hand, but Rasa is dead." I showed him my right arm.

"So he got you too, huh? You fought with him again?"

"Yes, now I am a disabled veteran with S-rank next to my name."

He grinned at that, "It's about time this clan had someone truly exceptional."

"But this is awfully rude of us; I'll go get Mikoto-san. You two come in, I'm sure Mother will be happy to prepare tea."

Mother shook herself out of her stupor and amazement, going deeper into the house while I went over to Fugaku's house.

I knocked on the door, getting a baby-holding lady to answer the door.

"We have a guest."

"Oh, who is it?" Her eyes were pink from crying, it seemed she really did like Nii-san.

"Brace yourself."

"I may be a mother now, but I'll have you know that I'm a jonin."

"Fugaku-nii is back."

"What!" She slammed the door behind her, walking at a brisk pace to the clan head's home.

Once everyone was situated around the table, we prompted Fugaku to begin his story.

"You told me to keep running, so that's what I did, I saw you get engulfed, but the gold wasn't stained red, so I assumed you were somehow alive.

"Then he turned to me, I tried to fend him off, but I was far too exhausted, smashed my left side rather considerably, saying something about letting me bleed to death. Then he chased after the rest of the group, I don't know how many he got. I don't have my right lung.

"Once he was out of sight," Here he motioned to the black-clothed figure, "She picked me up, took me to a cave, and nursed me back to health."

"For free?" I didn't believe that for a minute, someone skilled enough to save a man half-dead and with his side pulverized would be too intelligent for that. Well, people who helped dying men just to help them did exist I'll admit, if reluctantly.

"No. We'll be building her a house where she can stay."

Oh, lucky, just lodging? Not a bad deal then, "I see, I'll leave management of that to you then, Nii-san."

"Here I was hoping you'd take it off my hands."

With that settled we talked a little, Mother making the meal and feeding the whole group, though the enigma woman stayed hooded. We eventually all left to our rooms, with hoody taking the guest suite.

XXXX

I stayed inside because it was raining, drawing crude blueprints for my prosthetic. I knew what I wanted, but I wasn't a very great artist.

Konoha didn't have the best blacksmiths in the world, that'd be Tetsu no Kuni, and didn't even rank second, that'd be Iwa. No, Konoha ranked fourth, in all honesty, but it was good enough for me.

I sought out the very best Konoha had, an aging man named Ichibou. He was one of the many grand-students of the finest black-smith the world had ever seen, and was no slouch himself.

I talked my request over with him, and we reached an accord, he'd make it for me. Of course, the blacksmith pointed out flaws in my design, inputting new features and remodeling what just couldn't work.

It felt like an honor to hear him speak in his area of expertise.

The man received plenty of orders however, and mine would not be completed until three weeks from now. In that time I'd work on making shadow clones without a hand seal, since I would never be able to use them again without doing so.

**XXX**

It was intensely frustrating, and I was beginning to really hate my lack of a proper hand, the stub being utterly useless. Any previous excitement over getting totally awesome prosthetics was now dampened by the reality of just how horrible it was to lack a hand.

My everyday problems could be solved by merely forcing sand to do it, but my chakra control was somewhat disoriented, making less instinctual techniques difficult. I couldn't even use Great Fireball.

Not unexpected, since before I needed a couple hand-seals anyway, but it still disappointed me.

Still, I refused to give up, not believing that forming a clone without hand-seals was truly impossible. After-all, the Rasengan didn't need any hand-seals.

And my conviction was rewarded, on the eighteenth day I formed my first hand-less clone.

We high-fived, the clone turning to smoke because it was fragile, well; no-one said it'd be perfect.

Three days later I received word that my item was being worked on, so I immediately kidnapped a med-nin and headed over. He complained a little, but I pacified the weakling easily enough.

The piece of metal was red-hot as Ichibou shaped with incredible skill, using raw chakra manipulation to assist him. It was truly incredible to see it come together, and at the same time, very frightening. This was simply because that same piece of metal would clapped onto my arm at that same heat.

And then fused together, because of limitations the cap would come in two parts. And if I moved too much; I'd never get it off without agony, I'd never be able to attach a hand.

Eventually, Ichibou was ready, and he called his assistant over, who firmly clamped my arm into a fixed clamp. Then the pain came.

I blacked out, and when I came to nothing but agony in my right arm greeted me.

"Oh, that wasn't such a great idea was it?" I asked the blacksmith and the medic.

"Heh, you are a tough fellow." Ichibou praised me.

"That was medically not sound, why didn't you wash off the arm first?"

I chuckled as well as I could, "I did that at home." I began lightly regenerating the torched skin and tissue, running diagnostics while I did so. It hurt like the living hot-place.

"Everything looks OK." My arm was super-heavy, but I could get used to that.

I made a shadow clone, ordering the thing to inspect my new arm-cap.

"The blacksmith is very good, everything is perfect." He assessed, ah that was reassuring.

"How long was I out?"

"Over an hour."

"Ah."

"Well, I'll clear out now, thank you very much." I transported payment to the man with sand.

"No trouble, come back if you need my expertise again."

I doubted that, but I kept the offer in mind.

I spent my days getting used to the cap while my clones made hands.

My personal favorite was the pressurized-water hand; it shot water out of the palm, stored within with a seal. Unfortunately, it had the tendency to explode, since the material often couldn't stand the pressure.

I moved the hand via chakra strings, attached to the shoulder of that same arm, because of this I left both my arms bare. Movements that were impossible rapidly began decreasing as I got used to the idea of pushing the finger around with my chakra.

And by the end of a year after first fighting Rasa, I was genuinely skillful with my new hands.

The problem with the water-hand had been solved by a slight change in the shape and use of a more powerful reinforcement seal, something my clones worked on. My right hand looked a little clunky, but altogether I was satisfied.

I considered myself ready to retake the field if necessary, although I didn't inform the Hokage. I rather enjoyed studying with my clones, and sometimes Fugaku, and was loath to give it up for a village I barely knew.

I respected the Hokage, and almost all of the ninja in the village's employ, but I just couldn't give up this freedom. Nothing but clan elders could disturb me here; and Madara of course, if he wanted.

So I stayed right where I was, refining my water control until it was truly exceptional. Now making custom shapes that were complex with the liquid was easy enough, my years of work paying off. I was happy with the success, and reviewed my ice control for a couple days before moving on to the big challenge: Turning water to ice in a split-second.

There had to be some way, Hyoton was supposedly a mixture of water and wind, but what was I supposed to do? Make air go three-hundred miles an hour? It wouldn't even work; the water would be more likely to evaporate unless the air was extremely cold.

No, it was related to the fact that a liquid turns solid when its atoms slow down. And, considering the similarity between ice and water's chakra signatures, this wasn't untrue.

I had to somehow coax water to turn solid with some sort of chakra influence. Which, as I quickly found, wasn't easy.

There was a reason no one had replicated the famous bloodline before. And it wasn't because no one wanted to, people were jealous of blood-lines, so they wanted them for themselves, just like me. Only I was closer by a mile than the rest of the have-nots.

One mile out of five still leaves four, however. I wasn't very close.

Chakra didn't want to change around at will, but chilling water down wasn't impossible with it. The reason? Chakra that looked like ice, felt like ice, and should only be in ice, was physically cold.

And since I could already do that… I just had to flood enough 'cold chakra' into water and it'd eventually chill, turning solid. Unfortunately, at my current skill, it took fifteen seconds to make a single ice kunai, and it usually got misshapen because my control slipped a bit on the water side.

Having ice chakra and water chakra and controlling them both at once was close to an exercise in futility.

Obviously, I need to learn a faster way to make ice, because while selling ice for twenty ryo a ton could make me rich eventually, it wasn't my chosen occupation.

I spent another three months on it before conceding defeat. I could now chill water to ice in under a second, but the sheer quantity of chakra consumed made it impractical.

I admitted it now; bloodlines were bloodlines for a reason; even the Sharingan and its super-sight wouldn't allow me to copy them, even with years of time. So, I stopped struggling futilely, if it was foolish I don't suppose I'll ever know.

Instead, I moved onto some more complex sealing and puppetry, combining the arts into very curious combinations. A single dog-puppet could be as dangerous as a whole genin team, if used properly and correctly exploited.

By making each part physically separate I could add nearly unlimited seals, armor plating made of tin foil, swords made of wood that would almost never break, sealing was amazing. I even managed to replicate Tenten's famous weapon launching scroll, loading puppets with it.

A year ago, while I personally was working on Hyoton, my clones had discovered how the senbon launcher on the puppet I commandeered worked. It was quite simple, one simply pulled back the wire that applied the launching force, and then pulled the lever that dropped a senbon into the firing tube, all with chakra string.

Rather simple, but also amazingly complex, puppets really showed human ingenuity at its finest.

I now considered myself advanced enough in sealing to go look for a teacher, my teacher. This was for the simple reason that books could only take one so far.

So I set out for Mizu, where Orochimaru was still held up. It was easy enough to get permission from the Hokage to leave the village, something needed for A and S-rank ninja, even disabled veterans. Letting them go nuke-nin was simply too risky.

It was a three day journey to Orochimaru's base of operations, where he'd had Mizu blockaded for two years now. The village was becoming so very destitute that the blood-thirsty and warmongering place had finally started suing for peace.

The war couldn't last much longer now; Suna was but a shadow of its former self, courtesy of yours truly, and the aging Godaime Chiyo was too old to inherit the title, in my humble opinion. Rain had taken advantage of the village's weakened state, nearly conquering the Land of Wind. There was even talk of making Hanzo Amekage, and removing Suna from its position as 'one of the big five'.

Kumo had stayed fairly well clear of Konoha recently, not having clear information on who exactly had killed the Yondaime, not that anyone did, but suspecting his origin. The consecutive disappearing acts of two Kazekages had alarmed most of the ninja community. Rasa wasn't S-rank because he lived in the desert after-all, he had deserved the title.

I would be on the most-wanted list if people actually knew I did it, but their ignorance is my bliss.

Iwagakure was still strong though, it's ninja more powerful and nearly as numerous as at the start of the war, while Konoha had far too few men to face them with. Only such figures as Jiraiya and Minato kept them from totally overrunning Kusa and pouring into the Land of Fire.

As for the minor villages, besides Rain and River, who bordered Suna, most of them had fallen into decline, the power they had saved up too small to last the nearly eight years long war. So at the end of everything, the war they'd sparked was their own downfall, it was a serious irony.

But that's enough political updating for now; let's get back to the heart of the matter, Orochimaru.

He was a busy man, but hopefully I could convince the fellow I was worth his time. Although he couldn't be overly busy, the blockade was virtually running itself now, everything had been figured out and the commander was there only to keep things from deteriorating.

I entered his tent, unfazed by his current occupation. The Sannin was dissecting some body or other, no doubt investigating if a blood-liner's body was physically different. If he found they were, well, he could just transplant or replicate the change into a test subject, hopefully granting the subject the blood-line in question.

"Ah, Sensei, good to see you in health," I greeted him formally.

"Tch, don't remind me of yourself, failure. Going off and getting disabled, tch. You haven't even repaid my invested time yet."

"How harsh, I suppose this one will owe you two favors if you grant my request."

He looked up at that, "And what good will favors from you do, hmm?"

"You know very well how useful it is to cultivate good relationships with powerful figures, and how much more good is having them owe you?"

"You think yourself powerful? You may be my best student, but you're clearly too weak to keep all of your limbs." He practically scoffed.

"Shall I prove it to you?"

"Kukuku, offering to spar with me? It's been awhile, I'll enjoy this." He grinned sadistically, leaving his tools and the dead body behind as he left the tent, leaping a great distance with myself following.

"We won't ruin anything out here, Nanashi-kun, come at me." His neck twisted at an unnatural angle, a result of becoming more snake-like.

"Then excuse me," I whipped out two scrolls with my left hand, sand exploding from them as I released it at full tilt.

"It may interest you to know that my chakra reserves have increased a good deal since the time I so foolishly lost my hand." It wasn't really my style, to give off secrets like this, but Orochimaru enjoyed monologues himself, so it kind of followed.

"Show me, student of mine."

My sand coalesced in front of me, and then spread out around Orochimaru, making a semi-sphere around his location and rapidly closing in. While this maneuver was being executed I readied my right hand.

Orochimaru, predictably, poked his head out of the ground behind me, trying to pull me under the ground in the famous decapitation technique. But I turned my right palm to him, high-pressure water shooting out as my pale teacher hastily dived underground again.

The water supply was immediately cut off and the jet gradually came to a stop.

Orochimaru popped out of the ground a short distance away on the opposite side of me than he had started on. My sand washed over me in its pursuit of the legendary figure, and once I was totally invisible, I disappeared.

I poked out a short distance behind Orochimaru, a SEF already formed in my left hand. I threw it just as the snake-summoner turned to face me, his chakra sense having tipped him off. He dodged the SEF easily, running away from my sand as it assaulted him once more.

Clearly my sand wouldn't catch him, so I let it spread out on the field of battle, letting go of it so that the grainy stuff covered the ground. To replace this threat I unsealed three puppets, my current limit for efficient control.

One was humanoid; I called it Samwise, because it was slightly short and mildly overweight. The second was an over-sized lion, an unfortunate consequence of how much equipment I had loaded it with, named León. And the third was a toad, about as big as a bull-frog, which I called Kaeru.

Sam led the attack, attempting to press the Sannin with poisoned whip-blades as he whirled like a mad-man, Orochimaru made a mud-clone to face off against León.

León attempted to crush the clone with its heavy and sharp paws, but the clone was nimble and evaded, scoring a couple hits on the somewhat slow puppet. León breathed fire at the clone, turning it to baked clay, and moved onto the replacements.

"Kukuku, perhaps you're worthwhile after-all, to learn puppetry of all things."

"My talents have certainly presented themselves in the field." Most ninja studied years to reach this level of proficiency, although in cognitive time spent I'd probably spent nearly, if not more, than a decade on the subject.

"Hnn, do try harder my student, you're hardly pressuring me."

"Oh my, I suppose I shall have to comply."

Kaeru leapt over Samwise, spitting poison blobs and gaseous poisons at the creepy jonin, which he evaded with little trouble. Sam however wasn't plump because it looked handsome; a high-pressure water stream erupted from his stomach.

Orochimaru skillfully avoided while a loud clack came from León's direction, a result of the shifting internal gears, now instead on a flame thrower, he had a one-use senbon storm.

Hundreds of thin needles came out the unusually large head and neck, aimed in Orochimaru's general direction.

But the man did not disappoint, and his clone erected a large wall of earth, intercepting every single one. León leapt at the clone, nearly destroying him, but the thing dodged by a few hairs.

Meanwhile, Samwise was getting pulverized by a more-serious Orochimaru, the water-chamber quickly was punctured; the pressure was too great and Sam exploded. I supposed I'd remake him better.

Kaeru spat poison-dust, engulfing Orochimaru's figure in it. But my sensei was famous for more than his arrogantly long hair, and he simply held his breath and left the danger-zone.

I launched mini-SEFs in great numbers, Orochimaru evading skillfully most of them, but one got him in the foot drawing blood.

He grew a little irritated by that, and rushed at me with a superb shunshin. Sand came up and blocked his powerful strike, almost crushing his arm before he withdrew it.

He and I then engaged in taijutsu, with me keeping up only with the help of my sand, I could barely spare enough attention to keep León from being destroyed. But I did, and in a self-injuring manner the lion obliterated the mud-clone.

I let the puppet fall idle, not having sufficient chakra control to do too many things at once.

Shadows clones came into existence around me, and Orochimaru's eyes widened, "Seal-less? Gogyo Fuin!"

The fuinjutsu technique that Orochimaru liked impacted against my gut, a last level of previously hidden skill coming into play. I groaned heavily, my chakra pathways greatly disturbed. I hated that jutsu; I needed to learn it, seriously.

Orochimaru gave me a half-genuine smile, "It seems I'll be taking you up on your offer, fine student." He defeated my pestiferous clones that fought with virtually zero motivation in short order.

I smiled weakly back, struggling to my feet; I dipped my head in respect, "Thank you, Master."

XXXX

**So, at this point I've basically taken cannon, chopped it into small pieces, stuffed the pieces into a keg of gunpowder and lit the fuse. Seriously. No Temari, Kankuro, or Gaara, and certainly no Konoha Crush.**

**Anyway, I hope I did well on this chapter, because I had to delete a little over 700 words I didn't like, the most I've ever done at once.**

**So please, review, it means a lot to me. On a side note, we've passed 150 favs! Woot! Thanks guys for the support, I haven't seen too many negative reviews, so I think I'm doing ok. But hey, don't let me think something that's not true, go ahead and depress me if this story depresses you.**

**Thank you for reading,**

**Iamwhononofyouare**


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything I don't own, so I definitely don't own Naruto.**

**Chapter 22,**

Orochimaru was considered a genius for a reason, and he and I knew each other well. I respected the man, even if his methods could be creepy and sadistic.

So to say I was ecstatic to have him teach me seal-work wouldn't be a grievous overstatement. Though don't get me wrong, I didn't get ecstatic about anything. Still, I was happy about the whole affair, even if I had lost a puppet that took precious labor to create.

Orochimaru generally taught me in person, leaving a shadow clone to run the army, but some days he did it the other way around. My knowledge progressed greatly, clones experimenting and practicing while my true body received instruction.

While Jiraiya may have been the seal-master of the Sannin, it was clear that Orochimaru had his own knowledge base in the subject, diverse from the 'pointless' requirements to be considered a seal master. Orochimaru's style was more unorthodox, and much more forbidden. Anything with 'forbidden' slapped on it was an Orochimaru magnet.

As I learned newer more powerful seals I updated my small collection of puppets. But sealing was a complex art, and without actual understanding of it one couldn't invent new seals, something to be approached very cautiously.

So, needless to say, I occasionally got rather confused, my own twisted logic sometimes taking another turn from the strange facts of sealing. But I wasn't slightly above average on the intelligence scale because I bribed the IQ testers, so with a bit of explanation from Orochimaru I got it down.

I spent a few months under my teacher's grand tutelage, and I filled him on some of the things I had accomplished in return, besides the favor.

Of course, it wasn't lost on me that Orochimaru might save up those favors and use them against me once he left the village, assuming he even did. I was rather hoping I could keep the fellow around, human experimentation not-withstanding.

Because let's be honest, what's more dangerous, a mad scientist under your watchful eye or one beyond your reach? Keep your potential enemies close my friends. That's all assuming I didn't want to leave with him anyway, joining Akatsuki for a couple months might be fun.

That'd prevent me from being with my family though, something I really wanted to avoid.

I needed a wife or something, seriously; that'd make me stop swaying back and forth.

Eh, I was married to my hobby as they say. Not work, because currently I was unemployed and running on the money I'd saved up over the years. Not an insignificant sum, since I barely spent anything outside of my hobbies and buying Minato a meal now and then.

"No, you missed a point, fool." Orochimaru got very annoyed when idiocy was displayed, which explained why he was constantly irritated if Jiraiya was around.

In this case, Sensei was pointing out a fact I had missed, a minor stroke, rather embarrassing.

I fixed the mistake decently enough, sending chakra into the completed sealing matrix. And presto, a bolt of lightning shot out at the nearest conductor, a lightning rod set up nearby. It was a method of bypassing the normal method of training in lightning nature, just whip up a seal and boom. One-use though, so it wasn't popular.

It certainly would hurt if the thing decided I was a better conductor than the blasted pole, something which had happened once or twice. Steel alloy hand and all.

"Good enough, let's move on to the interesting stuff." Orochimaru motioned for me to follow him, so I did. We came to a very special spot, the place where Orochimaru kept prisoners.

He wasn't nice to them, plenty look half-dead; half the rest were insane. Some were just broken, having an incredibly unsettling dead look in their eyes.

"This is where I experiment on some of the more… psychological seals." He grinned.

I could totally see where this was going, "So, mind domination and subtle thought direction?"

"Astute. Yes, it's quite interesting, I can make a very lustful man not even touch one of those horrid novels of that fool Jiraiya," He smiled, "The fellow even got nightmares just from reading the first page, curious stuff."

_Very _curious. To forcibly change someone's nature? Seals were very powerful indeed.

"But I find simple loyalty seals very amusing," He journeyed a little deeper, coming to a cell with a female Mizu hunter-nin inside, "Girl."

"Yes Orochimaru-sama? Command me."

"Do greet my student."

"Greetings to Orochimaru-sama's honored student, forgive my impudence but what is it like to learn from the great Orochimaru-sama?" Wow. He really didn't hold back.

"Here's the fun part." Orochimaru looked fairly ready to giggle as he reached in and deactivated the seal.

"What have you done to me?" She added in a few pieces of her mind for effect.

"Oh, nothing much."

"You snake, just kill me!"

He reactivated the seal, ignoring the woman's struggles.

"I've only recently really had success in the field, I confess you coming to me for fuinjutsu knowledge inspired me." He grinned again.

"I'm impressed." Indeed I was, the practical, and clearly a big factor for him, sadistic, value could not be overlooked.

"As you should be, I'm your teacher after-all, now let's get down to business."

I could feel Orochimaru's assessing gaze as I studied a non-compressed version of one of the mind-altering seals. What was he assessing? Ah, loyalty, potential disobedience, risk, value, growth potential, devotion -I wasn't really devoted to anything-, expected lifespan, and a whole host of other factors.

Orochimaru was always trying to see if I was worth his time, but so far, I'd proven every time that I was.

Still, it felt good to be his 'fine student', so I didn't really look forward to disappointing the fellow. Once I had fully studied the seal I looked up at my sensei, "Orochimaru-sensei, allow me to demonstrate something."

Some of the water in a cup nearby leapt into the air, where it froze after a few seconds, in the form of a kunai.

"Hyoton? Fascinating," His head cocked to one side as he looked over my creation.

"Yes it is, but I have a problem."

"And you want help, hnn? Do tell."

"It takes too long to freeze the water, and far too much chakra."

"Now that is a problem indeed, have you tried compression?"

"No."

"Well, that'd take an outside force, like air. I don't suppose you know wind manipulation?"

"I do not."

"Pity. Teach me your method for the Hyoton and I'll teach you Fuuton."

"It's a deal." It'd make him more powerful, but the fellow already had plenty of tricks.

It took a while to teach Orochimaru the method to control ice, but he caught on. While he was learning news came in that Namikaze had wiped out a whole army, solo.

The Kanabi Bridge was gone, and Iwa could only lose now, despite its former advantage. Obito wasn't mentioned in the information that reached us, but I had a very serious suspicion this was where Kakashi was supposed to receive the Sharingan.

My clones worked on sealing while I spent my time with Orochimaru, teaching him ice control; and he in return coaching my wind manipulation.

A team of my clones were working on a special project: Armor. I wasn't arrogant enough to believe I could get lucky forever, so getting effective; easy to move in armor was a must.

And with my specialty in reinforcement sealing, it wouldn't be hard to do. Not hard didn't mean easy, it took time to sew pieces of leather onto cloth. The idea was simple; sew leather pieces onto fairly normal material, and then further the strength of the leather with a seal per piece.

Since there were hundreds, a necessity because reinforcement sealing tended to stiffen the object in question, it took a long time. Eventually I would make chainmail with large rings, putting a seal on each ring, but for now I would settle for less.

While I was with my sensei, Mizu and Konoha finished the peace talks, so the east was no longer a front, only the north remained.

We packed up and returned to Konoha, Orochimaru had officially killed all the prisoners before the peace treaty was signed, but in reality he took a few with him. Not a nice guy, his own teacher was the man who signed off on handing over POWs but he smuggled them to a secret facility.

I didn't really have an obligation to tell anyone, and I was certainly not altruistic, so there they stayed.

He and I continued our sessions, and now I could use certain wind techniques. Unfortunately the air was extremely unruly, a result of its mix of chakra signatures due to the fact that air was made up of many gasses. Therefore, gaining real control over it, as I had done with sand and water, and to a lesser degree earth, would be difficult.

That didn't mean I couldn't isolate certain compounds in the air, I'd discovered what CO2's chakra signature is and was in the process of gaining control of it.

If I could, well, Hyoton worries wouldn't be such a big deal, I'd just use it like a fire extinguisher on the water. Rapid freezing would be sort of inevitable, though I wouldn't be able to freeze large things, like a cube more than a foot in width. Don't let it get out of hand though; there isn't much CO2 in the atmosphere, so gathering it up enough takes time.

Simple things though, just keep it simple.

On the note of mind-control sealing, I'd altered my first victim, changing a young man from a grim but timid fellow into a beast who didn't care about pain. It was freaky, to be able to mess with someone's very mind in such a way.

Genjutsu could probably do the same thing, though more easily broken out of. The seals sucked chakra from the victim and used it, prolonging their effectiveness indefinitely. But a genjutsu would be used once and a simple shake in chakra flow would get rid of it forever.

**XXX**

But back to the present, I was currently shaving. I had unfortunately succumbed years ago to the fact of facial hair.

But don't get the mistaken idea that I shaved with something as mundane as a razor. No indeed, I shaved with chakra, cutting my extra hair without even lifting a finger.

I still needed a mirror though, so I most certainly was in the bathroom. The academy's bathroom.

Incidentally, I'd been invited to be a guest speaker for a class, what year wasn't very clear, but nonetheless I was speaking.

Short notice, so I was going over ideas for speeches while my hair simply fell off. It was rather ironic if you put your mind to it.

Still, the time came, and I waited outside the door to the classroom. I spiked my chakra to let the chunin know I was ready and took my gloves off.

"And now, please welcome Uchiha Nanashi-sama." A male voice told the class.

I entered calmly, and immediately noticed the age of the class, 9-10. It'd work fine for me, though I was surprised by one of the members.

Mitarashi Anko, I suppose Orochimaru would probably take her on as a student, I'd be almost done with him by the time she graduated, it all fit perfectly. Well, I'd enjoy having a few juniors to pick on, no?

I stood behind the podium; stage fright plaguing me more severely than fighting a Kage could ever scare me. Funny how the thought of saying something idiotic made one lose their rationality.

I raised my right hand to start, looking out at the sea of faces, "I didn't lose this hand because I wanted to; I lost it because I was stupid.

"Don't ever be like that, never forget even the slightest portion of what you learn, not even for a moment, because a single instant is all it takes, and boom, you're done. If you're lucky all you'll have to live on is the smidgeon of a pension the village provides. If not you'll be dead or captured.

"So don't ever believe you can cut corners, don't forget what got you where you are. Things have a natural progression, first we learn to access our chakra, then we learn about controlling it, then we learn simple techniques. Then we move on to more advanced things, branching out and specializing.

"But don't ever forget those things you started on, one day you may need them."

I looked into each student's eyes, "If you think the life of a ninja is fun, leave this room now and don't show your face again. It's not fun. It's a chilling series of deaths; your friends will die. Your enemies will die, clients will die; _you'll _die.

"But don't get me wrong, there are successful ninja out there who have lived a long life, though filled with pain. Pain is not enough to quit, if it were, there would be no conflict. For if every man was afraid of being hurt, would anyone ever offend another? No! And who are you to be afraid of something your enemy is not?"

I paused, signally that I was moving on to another subject.

"Never stop improving, because the ones who really want you dead won't. If you're not ready to devote most of your life to the boring pursuit of knowledge and power, forget this.

"But," I inhaled and exhaled, wondering if I could really say these words in good conscience, "Never forget your morality, because once you lose it all, you'll go insane. That's why shinobi choose a nindo, so they won't go crazy. Because believe me, I've seen those who've gone insane, and putting them down is not pretty." Not pretty at all.

"But while I've always respected speeches, you brats probably have the attention span of a cat, follow me outside." Wasn't really what I was asked to do, but hey, above and beyond right?

We went outside, enjoying the cooling air and gentle atmosphere of fall.

"Every one of you choose something you'd like to be the best at, don't tell anyone but me." Nothing like an activity to spice things up.

I gave them a minute, and then asked each kid in turn, putting each kid into a group. Of the thirty students sixteen picked ninjutsu, eight picked taijutsu, and the remaining children chose some mental subject, including genjutsu.

I created three clones, and they each took one of the groups under their wing, giving the students pointers and new material in their chosen subject. The ninjutsu kids got a demonstration of what the clone technique could really do, while the taijutsu kids learned a new move and when to use it. The genjutsu kids got a lesson in chakra control.

These kids were the really awful students, ones who were already ten years old and not graduated. Because believe me when I say it, Obito made genin at nine, and his latent potential may be high, but the academy is no Madara.

So yeah, these kids were all inferior to the dead last of a few years ago.

I wandered over to the teacher, "Sorry if I'm cutting into important lesson time."

"Eh, its fine, these kids will learn more from you in an hour than from me in three."

"Don't sell yourself too short; you're their teacher, not me."

"It's good of you to say so."

"No, it's a fact."

"Ah, so you're a fact-oriented type of guy?" He looked up at me, being slightly shorter.

"Certainly," I admitted, assessing the teacher.

"You should consider being a teacher."

"You're trying to recruit me? I'm a jonin you know."

"You're on the disability list, you can apply to be a teacher and if you pass the tests it doesn't matter your rank."

I raised a brow, "Hnn. I'll consider it." I always considered offers, no matter how unlikely or ridiculous.

"Ah! I'm Hara Yori."

"Public servant, huh? Very apropos for a teacher."

I shook his hand, the more western manner of greeting somehow known and gaining popularity, "Uchiha Nanashi." He already knew my name, but etiquette should not be skimped on.

Once my clones had finished I took my leave, having enjoyed myself a little.

My clones at home had finished my armor, so I tried it on. The thing felt, well, not surprising, but it seemed a little stiff. I didn't fancy going around like an armored samurai.

Still, these things must be tested, so I took the sleeved vest off, stabbing it viciously with a kunai.

I grinned; the kunai had slipped right off the leather scales, barely scratching them.

It felt good, knowing I had made this. The leg armor would be harder to make, but I set my clones to it, not restricting them to using only leather. Anything that worked was acceptable. While my clones worked on the project I left to visit my teacher.

Orochimaru was poring over some seal, attempting to decipher it.

"What's this?" I asked, taking my gloves off.

"I seal I found, I can't seem to understand it."

"These things happen I suppose."

"Yes, but I don't like it. Sit down and help me."

I smiled, not many saw this side of Orochimaru, but I did. I scanned the sealing matrix with my Sharingan, comparing it to perfect memories of other seals.

"It seems to be some sort of barrier, but the fire kanji seems pointless." I cocked my head to the side, theories running rampant.

"Ah, yes, a barrier to lock out only fire, very interesting."

"Some sort of fireproof seal then?"

"Seems to be so, not very useful for how inefficient and complex it is."

"Perhaps it was made by an amateur sealer?"

"Perhaps," He looked it over, "But the strokes seem well-done."

"Then a talented one with limited knowledge expanding with whatever he knew?"

"More than likely, I don't suppose I'll ever find a use for it."

"I don't know, properly used it could make one immune to fire techniques." I suggested out of hand.

"Oh, I see, yes, and then all I'd have to do is replace the fire symbol with any other, modify the lines a little…"

I certainly saw where this was going: Immunity to elemental techniques. Now one might wonder why we didn't simply use a regular general purpose barrier, simple, it'd try to block every single thing, and wear itself out. And I mean everything; only very large seals could avoid this. Far too expensive, chakra-wise, barriers like that were only used to protect stationary strategic locations.

So yes, a very specific seal could be quite useful because of its portability, it'd only be a problem if you wanted to sit around the campfire. And in that case, you could just turn it off.

He and I worked on Hyoton and Fuuton, and then I took my leave, immediately replicating the seal once I got home. There was no way I was going to let Orochimaru alone have such an advantage.

I drew the final touch, a familiar swirl off to the side. Uzumaki sealing then, interesting, no wonder it seemed unconventional.

I compressed the seal as far as I could; transferring it to a small piece of super-durable paper. I then channeled chakra into it, activating my Sharingan. It made a barrier alright, and it was of moderate size, despite the seal's complexity it seemed quite efficient.

I used the Phoenix Sage Fire technique, sending the fireballs careening toward the barrier, they simply could not enter, the barrier outright rejecting any fire that sought entry. I pushed harder, but the barrier won and the fireballs destabilized, dispersing and exploding.

I went over to the seal, it wasn't even one-use, not surprising, barrier seals rarely were, but it made the seal that much more valuable. I investigated the chakra levels of the seal; it had used up slightly less than what the fireballs had used, very nice.

Perhaps Orochimaru-sensei had sent a team of clones to the former Uzushiogakure and scraped up a seal where all others had failed. I wouldn't put it past the man.

Disappointed he must have been that the seal was only on this level. It was excellent, ground-breaking even, but the real deal was Biju sealing. Uzumaki Mito, now deceased, had sealed the Kyuubi without any side-effects, at least so far as the public knew. She hadn't been able to use its power at all, but it was impressive nonetheless.

On the subject of sealing a being within another being, it was certainly possible to seal a man inside another man. And with a proper seal, one could call on the one inside's power. So then, was it not possible to seal a great number of beings inside one man, allowing him to draw on their powers?

I'd say it was. It was an interesting concept, to go around, sealing powerful ninja into oneself with a good seal, like the one Minato used to seal the Kyuubi inside Naruto. Not the death-god one, the eight point seal.

Of course, in this timeline that might not even happen, Obito wasn't MIA nor was he KIA. And without his untimely interference, as I understand it, the Kyuubi would not be released. But there were other seals; that I did not know or understand, out there.

Not that I really understood being sealing at all, I was more of an inanimate kind of guy, with a specialty in reinforcement and such. But I was certainly interested; sealing was extremely complex, and twice as intriguing.

But that's one thing and this fire-barrier is another, I equipped myself with the seal, ready to pour chakra into it to block fire techniques. Useful stuff, this way I'd counter almost every ninja in Konoha's ninjutsu.

I worked on puppetry for a little, and then decided to pay a certain someone a visit.

**XXX**

So here I was, standing at the door and knocking. Whose door you ask? There was a certain female who saved a certain Fugaku. And that certain female never showed her face, name, or even size to me. She was living in our compound, so it was only natural I'd be wary; and curious.

The door was answered, but her hood was still up.

"You'll have to forgive my rudeness, but letting you stay around without knowing who or what you are is not acceptable."

"Oh, a suspicious one are we?" Young voice, curious. The hood was still up, so facial features were obscured, it hung quite low. I narrowed my eyes.

"I'm not going away without my answers."

"I thought you'd be more polite, Fugaku-san at least was thankful."

"And so am I, I value my brother. But gratefulness does not equal stupidity or complacency, your ally today is tomorrow's foe."

"How jaded."

"The world is jaded, and no man can change that."

"But could someone who is not a man change it?"

"Perhaps, but men are the most powerful beings besides the Shinigami." At least, as far as I know. And don't argue that Biju are number one, it's a dead argument.

"I was not aware you knew of it."

"Nor was I aware that you did, imagine that, common ground."

"Funny. So you think I'll just tell you?"

"I could always force it out of you."

"Oooh, scary, I'm so afraid I'll become your slave."

I chuckled, "I like your sense of humor, girl."

"Girl now; what a promotion."

"You're dodging the question."

"Am I? You're getting to know me, and that's what you want, right?"

"Profound, but you're still wearing that hood."

"Maybe I'm self-conscious."

"You're not; I can read people enough to know that."

"You fancy yourself quite skilled."

I gave her a stone-face, "I suppose it has been getting to me lately, thank you for the reminder."

"Oh, you aspire to be humble?"

"Yes."

"How admirable."

I grinned, "Not really."

"Boring, most of your kind falls for that."

"My kind?"

"Shinobi," She answered tersely.

"You're either throwing me off or you don't like ninja much."

"I can't be doing both?" Her head moved to the side, letting me catch a brief view of her chin.

"You enjoy this all too much; I'll visit some other time. I'm Nanashi."

"Fugaku-san talked about you all the time."

"I'm honored, good-day miss."

"What happened to not leaving without answers?" She asked impertinently.

"You gave me answers, just not to my initial questions." I smiled as I replied cryptically.

I left, well pleased with my progress; I didn't expect to get an answer out of her so soon. Like an interrogation, patience was needed. So while it was frustrating to know so little, it was good I at least had a read on her personality, so long as it wasn't a front. Fronts were easy for skilled men and women, like breathing on a normal day.

I absentmindedly mowed the lawn with wind chakra, shaving it down to size.

On another note, I wonder if Minato and Kushina are married yet. If they were I wouldn't be surprised, it was a very private affair as I understood it, and I was hardly a close enough friend to be invited.

On the following day, after I'd properly exercised I went over to a certain female's home. I really needed her name.

"This Uchiha Nanashi greets you," I acknowledged her after she showed her face. Well, showed herself, her face was still annoyingly hidden, and I had the decency not to pry.

"Right; anything more interesting going on?" She looked over my head, trying to annoy me.

"This Nanashi is unaware of interesting things that might be occurring; you ready to tell me your name?"

"I don't know, you sure you want to hear it?"

"If you don't tell me your name I'm going to make one up."

"That sounds amusing, shoot."

I puzzled over it for a minute, couldn't be rude or offensive, something unfitting was also bad, "Miyuki."

"How bland, I was looking forward to a specially crafted name."

"As I expected, so I used a bland name."

"What goes around comes around, eh?"

"Only if someone passes it on; in this case, I did."

"So Nanashi what is it today, you want the hood off? Then the next day it'll be the cloak…"

"As amusing as your shameless implication is; no."

"Eh, a gentleman?"

"Not at all, I simply value self-control, emotions and passions are the number one cause of death, besides old age perhaps."

"So you subscribe to the emotionless diatribe?"

"No, I subscribe to control, I keep my emotions, but they are not my primary concern."

"So you're pragmatic."

"I try to be, and you?"

"I do whatever suits me."

"So you saved Nii-san on a whim? But then you would have simply returned whence you came."

"Maybe I got sick of the nomadic life?"

"Maybe someone burned your home and killed your family."

A sharp inhale, heh, I'm not where I am without some people skills, huh?

"What is it to you?" She asked, a previously unheard bitterness leaking into her tone.

I grinned, "I was just thinking how cliché you are, tragic past and all."

"Don't mock me Uchiha," She chuckled, "It was a while ago anyway, not your concern."

"I'll come again some time." I dipped my head and turned away, leaving the girl to sort out her recalled emotions.

Well, once again, partial success. Good enough for little old me anyway. Still, it was interesting to find that under that cheerful mask of carelessness there was a world of hurt. Not that I pitied, or envied, her, her lot was hers and mine was mine.

But let's not let our guard down here; that could all have been a well-crafted act. If so, she's quite good. Continued exposure and high suspicion were both necessary.

XXXX

Later that day I was working on a special project, personally.

It was a puppet made very meticulously, fashioned in Namikaze Minato's image. The whole world was scared of him, and an initial reaction of fear and surprise could seal the deal just as well as a super-finisher.

One goal was to make it appear that the puppet was making a Rasengan on its own. It would be very nice, to freak them out to that extent. It wasn't hard to make a Rasengan and slowly float it into the puppet's waiting arms, but that wouldn't do at all.

In fact, besides making an elemental Rasengan, there was no way I knew of to accomplish my goal.

Raw chakra was hard to control beyond a certain distance for some reason, while elemental was rather simple. It was one of the many strange things about chakra that simply made no sense.

But it made sense within the realm of chakra, so arguing with it was foolish.

There were exceptions; raw chakra was easy to control if it was connected to oneself.

I made a chakra chain, the links bladed sharply. Kushina was famous for a similar technique, something no-one else had thought to replicate. Besides me of course, for me it was as easy as making a shadow clone. Very easy.

The chain, however, was just one of many forms. It was easy to conjure up any number of sharp derivations of the chakra string. Though many might disagree, a result of ignorance, chakra chains were merely an advanced from of chakra strings.

So to make a sharp chain was no harder, or easier, than to make a sharp rope, though each one had its own particular uses. It wasn't my favorite fighting style, but I could certainly use it as a resort.

XXXX

My visits to Miyuki continued, without much success, so I reduced my visits to every other day. She was slightly more guarded now, a result of my big, and probably accurate, mouth.

My Minato puppet was coming along nicely, and my clones had completed the leg armor. It was insanely mismatched in appearance, but I didn't get where I was without sacrificing a few aesthetics. I didn't much care for them anyway.

Sarutobi announced his desire to retire, and the choices for Yondaime were simple: Minato, Orochimaru, or Sakumo. Tsunade wasn't interested, she seemed ready to leave at a moment's notice, and Jiraiya had his spy network to run.

In the end, Namikaze Minato was chosen, I approved. Better to leave the village to the younger generation, so that they might have a long and fruitful reign.

Orochimaru was peeved, but I consoled him as best I could. Not very well, he was complex and difficult to understand, and far too intelligent to not recognize comforting for what it was. So instead he took another genin team, things were moving along beautifully.

Mikoto was pregnant with Sasuke, at least I assumed it was Sasuke, and Kushina had, quite annoyingly, conceived.

Why was it annoying? It meant crunch time. The birth was pivotal to Konoha, where I certainly resided. It was not my intention to let the Kyuubi attack occur. And to prevent it, I would keep a very close watch.

I was twenty-five, and ranked fourth on the most desirable bachelor list. I was just happy I was something moderate like that, number one was annoying, and certainly belonged to its owner: Minato. Now I don't mean Minato was annoying, I mean being number one was annoying.

Number four was enough for me to feel self-confident in my style and looks while not being high enough for females to squeal at the sight of me. Very good rank that.

I figured it was about time to stop pretending and petition to be re-instated as an active jonin. I valued my freedom, but Orochimaru was busy now, and I was running lower on money.

"Nanashi-oji."

"Yes Itachi?"

"Why does Father always seem so pale and exhausted?"

"Fugaku-nii hasn't even told you yet, and you're already four! He lost a lung a few years back."

"So he has only one."

"Yes; and most humans have two, you know."

"Then will you be clan head when Ojii-sama dies?"

"You are not so foolish, you will be."

He frowned a cute toddler frown as he looked at the ground in thought, "You are clearly more qualified." He said.

"That will change, methinks. I hate to push it on you who is so young; but I have no wish to lead the clan. I want to benefit the clan as well as I can, but to become clan head? No."

"So it is for me to lead this clan?"

"Someday I imagine, unless your brother surpasses you." I knelt down and looked him in the eye, "But don't let that fool you, your brother is family, not a rival."

"How do you know it is a boy?"

"Because if he's not then there is no point in this conversation, a girl will never inherit while there is an eligible male; it's called Agnatic-Cognatic succession."

He rolled the foreign term over in his mind for a second, "I see." And unlike stupid kids who just said that, Itachi really did see.

"What are you going to teach me today, Nanashi-oji?"

Since there was no one else more qualified, and I had already decided to treat Itachi as my own son, I was the one who had been teaching the lad. Forgive me for not mentioning it before, it simply slipped my mind.

I took on a lecturing pose, "Chakra is merely an extension of your will; to think it is difficult to master is to make it so. While it sounds idealistic and foolish, simply believing you can do something with your chakra is reason enough to be able to do it.

"Once you've experienced this a few times, one begins to feel confidence in their own chakra, this is what control exercises really are. The goal is to make one familiar with one's own chakra; this is what I have learned. Confidence is all you need, stop believing it's a mystical energy that is scary and unpredictable, and use it as your own. Like doing a back-flip for the first time, taking a leap of faith is difficult.

"If I had learned this at your age, I have no idea where I'd be. But it's the simple truth, your chakra is your own, it wants to be used by you."

I made a chakra string, attaching it to a piece of grass and pulling, lifting the blade from its neighbors, "You try."

Itachi looked at my string, then shrugged and made his own, pulling a blade of grass out.

"See? Simple isn't it?"

"Yes."

Life was fairly good, I just needed to live to see it through.

**Authors Note: I present to you, chapter twenty-two. May you live to see the next, and may I as well. If it doesn't come out, do not mourn, for I will be in a place better.**

**Besides the impending death issues, nothing is wrong with me, so please review. If you don't see the logic in that, look it over again.**

**Until the next time I tease you with another chapter, or reply to your review,**

**Iamwhononofyouare**


	23. Chapter 23, Kyuubi, or no Kyuubi?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or its characters.**

**Chapter 23,**

Itachi was a brilliant student who was incredibly easy to teach, the boy caught on to concepts with frightening speed and accuracy. Sending him to the Academy would be seriously pointless, though I reckoned he'd still have to go.

His physical state wasn't bad for his age, but overwork in that section could be the reverse of beneficial at this point. So we continued going through taijutsu stances and moves, and I also continued my instruction in the other fields.

If Itachi grew to be more powerful than I, so be it. I'd just have to make sure he never tried to obliterate his clan.

**XX**

Today I was heading over to my sensei, to greet my new juniors.

Orochimaru was instructing the green trio in some tactical strategy or another, so I listened from where my juniors could not detect me. Besides Anko, there were two males; there was one with sandy hair and glasses, and the other one wore a long brown pony tail that always kept together.

Once Orochimaru finished his short lecture, I used the body flicker and presented myself before the team.

"Greetings; the pleasure is mine. I look forward to studying under Orochimaru-sensei along with you, I am Uchiha Nanashi."

"Who are you?" Anko blurted brashly.

"I am your senior, Nanashi." I explained again.

"The white guy had students before us?" She scrunched her ten-year-old brow comically.

The one with long hair brought his fist down on her head, "Do you never pay attention? Nanashi-sama is quite famous, you know?"

"I agree." The other boy pushed his glasses up on his nose. Typical glasses ninja.

"Well I'm not calling him, 'sama' for anybody."

"Then please, address me informally." I let it slide easily, totally unperturbed.

"What do you want now, Nanashi-kun? I'm quite busy you know." Orochimaru cut in abruptly.

"Ah, forgive me if I disturbed you, Orochimaru-sensei, I merely wished to greet my juniors."

"And you've greeted them, yes?"

"Yes, perhaps I should contribute to make up the lost time?"

"They hardly have the Sharingan." Orochimaru commented dryly.

There was no way I was going to teach them my sand control, it wasn't happening. These guys, besides Anko, they joined Orochimaru as far as I knew. And if Orochimaru betrayed the village, well, he'd pose a serious threat. And even more serious if his minions taught him something like sand control.

It was bad enough that I had virtually given him Hyoton, and he was entirely ungrateful in his speech.

But the man paid back what he owed, in his own way, and I got what I gave out in other forms. Mainly on the subject of sealing; there was a certain level one could reach on their own. Beyond that, one needed a teacher, such as I had.

But this was not the subject of debate. Something Orochimaru was going to teach them anyway was somewhat pointless, so I settled for chakra strings. It felt old, but it was a good starting point for both Itachi and this group.

"This, my little juniors, is a chakra string." One promptly attached itself to each of the three's upper clothing.

"And this, my little juniors, is what it can do, with proper control." There was really no reason for a string of chakra to stay limp. So I made another string, pulling a stick from the ground and lifting it to eye level.

At this point the three thought the strings on their stomachs had no meaning, but they were naïve youngsters. I pulled the three towards me with the strings on each of them, and then stopped, just before they reached me. Through all this, my fingers hadn't pulled on the strings.

"Now, you try."

The three hadn't had my wonderful discourse on chakra like Itachi, nor were they geniuses like him. The kid comprehended stuff better than ten year olds, crazy. Kind of like me when I was young, curious. I doubted anyone else would have been reborn into this world, but there was always the possibility.

I briefly explained chakra and the strings thereof to the kids; leaving before they actually completed the exercise. Busy man I am, and all that.

I journeyed to the Uchiha training ground, and began testing of one of my ideas. It was a sort of rip-off of the Hyuuga's ultimate defense technique; but really just a hollow, and very large, version of the Rasengan. Large enough to fit a person.

The idea was simple, and actually making the chakra-expensive technique work wasn't difficult. Just another day in Uchiha Nanashi's life really, it wasn't likely I'd use such a wasteful technique anytime soon however.

Before we leave this subject though I want to mention something very important, I had no idea how the Hyuuga made their technique work, and I highly doubt they did it like I did. Now that that's all cleared up, we can move on.

The rest of the day passed with me teaching Itachi once every short while, and me working on my puppets and seals. Two studies very intermingled for me at the time.

In the morning I woke up as usual, cleaning the grit that inevitably invaded my metallic right arm's cap and the hands thereof. I then equipped a standard hand, meaning its physical appearance wasn't different from a real hand.

And believe me when I say not all my hands were quite so normal. I had crossbows, whips, flame throwers, specialized water shooters too. Unlike the normal version of the water shooter, the specialized version wasn't shaped like a normal hand.

Once I was done with all that, I ate my breakfast with Mother and Father. I then made the short trek to Fugaku-nii's house to pick up my student.

"Itachi," I greeted him by simply saying the boy's name.

"Nanashi-oji," He returned the greeting in kind.

"I trust you haven't abused your chakra strings."

"I have practiced safely, sensei."

"Wonderful, let's head to the training ground." I paced myself to a speed where the brat could barely keep up, and the simpleton did his best. Good.

"Now that we've started getting into the real shinobi stuff, chakra, I'll start you on some control exercises. But don't forget what I said yesterday, these are only to familiarize yourself with your own chakra."

"I assume we'll start with the leaf sticking then?"

"Oh, so you've been reading. Or did your parents tell you?"

"Reading."

"I'm tempted to say no, but yes, that's where it starts. Once you've mastered the technique, come and show me."

Just like my own Hiroshi-sensei did with me, I also did the hands-off style. But I -Hiroshi may have done this for all I know- left two shadow clones to watch over my nephew.

As for myself, I took off into the sky and practiced breathing where the air was thinner. It could be a useful thing to do, in more than one way. My hair was kept under complete control by very firm bandages over my skull, and I wore my leather armor.

Once I was accustomed to the less concentrated levels of oxygen, I began the real stuff.

I unsealed dirt, forming SEFs out of the earth. Then I threw them all, one after the other, high into the air. They were thirty-eight in number.

The goal was simple, cut them all down before they reached the ground. It would be simple, but I purposely threw them at varying angles, so I had a lot of ground, or sky in this case, to cover. It was the best way to become comfortable with flight, and was an exercise I had done for years, gradually increasing the number of targets.

My most memorable experience with it was when one of the SEFs I missed almost brained a little child. Instead, it made a deep hole in the ground. After that I made sure to get all of them, though the fact that what goes up must come down remains.

My left hand drew my katana, a newer thing than the one I wore during the Third War, and I chased down the one farthest to my right. Sharingan spinning painfully slowly I cut them down; twenty-five, twenty-nine, this is where things got harder.

I dove after the remaining nine, chopping the last one in half just before I rammed into the tree line. That was just the way I liked it, you've got to push hard to improve.

Two more days passed before Itachi came to me, claiming mastery. He demonstrated his worth; the lad had put considerable effort into 'mastery' of the exercise, so with flying colors did Itachi pass.

"I am happy you have completed this exercise successfully, let's go on." The next step was simple; continue in physical growth and taijutsu, while learning Katon, and genjutsu theory.

The months passed quickly, right up until Sasuke was about ready to be born. Then I began seriously considering large scale engagement techniques with which to fight the Kyuubi.

Obito was safe and sound sure, but plenty of Uchiha had died over the years, Madara could have taken one of them. Or even a non-Uchiha, if this part of his plan were desperately crucial.

But besides wrecking Konoha and killing Kushina and Minato, the whole affair didn't benefit the guy a whole lot. Maniac, what was the goal in such an action? I just couldn't understand it. But that wasn't needed, I just needed to stop the events I wanted gone.

And I quite liked Minato, just like the rest of the village, who saw him as a hero who sealed the course of the war. The fellow was more famous than even Sakumo, who was more famous than the Sannin. Indeed, Konoha had a number of fearsome warriors.

If the face of such prodigies from Konoha, little ole Flying Sand Devil had been nigh forgotten. But the time would soon come to remind the world that I did not lose out to my peers. Even Minato would have a hard time beating me, for if the special kunai were never to come near me… Well, the legendary Hiraishin would turn into nothing more than a glorified dodging technique. Albeit a very fast and effective one; but a dodging technique nonetheless.

XXXX

"Katon: Great Fireball!" Itachi yelled, a sizeable ball of fire burning its target to a pile of charcoal and ash. Itachi was a quick learner, it didn't matter how many times one said it; it remained true.

"Excellent! I'll update your library; look forward to its new fullness next morning." Somehow, each kid in our family had a secret library room, Uchiha architecture at its finest.

"I have a friend, Shisui; I should like to train with him." Itachi broached the subject of his friend, I was already aware that the two were friends, and was expecting such a request.

"Oh? I hear good things about him, do bring him tomorrow."

"Thank you."

"No trouble, it is hardly more difficult to train two than to train one. Let's move on," I talked about the uses and advantages of it, and then demonstrated the Uchiha's shurikenjutsu, "Uchiha are famous for their prowess with shuriken, and while I've never been much for it, I am at least proficient."

I preferred my unique ninjutsu, but some of the clan's shuriken techniques were very interesting. Most of them revolved around ninja wire and fire release, and could be quite useful.

The following day, after I stealthily dumped a number of my old books in Itachi's library, both Shisui and Itachi presented themselves for training.

I'd gone over it in brief before, obviously, since Itachi had used the Great Fireball, but I wasn't aware of how far Shisui's knowledge went as far as hand-seals. So, I went back to the subject.

"Hand-seals are an aid to help regulate and control chakra for techniques, normally ninjutsu, and for those who aren't very good with control, genjutsu. But, it's important to remember that at their heart, they are an aid. As Itachi has seen numerous times, and you yourself shall see, I can do this," I held both my hands up where the two could see them, and blew a Great Fireball out of my mouth. "If you're comfortable with your own chakra, this much is nothing.

"So, as we can see, hand-seals are about as necessary as hands themselves." I unscrewed my right hand, letting it fall to the ground, "Not very."

"But you still use a prosthetic." Shisui piped up, not entirely convinced that hands weren't needed.

I held both arms perfectly still, and the ground came up a circled around me, taking the form of a snake, "If you're worried about daily life, forget it, dirt is everywhere."

Both their eyes widened; and they came over and touched my earthen construct, making sure it wasn't just an illusion. Needless to say, it wasn't, and the two were thoroughly convinced.

"But then why do you keep a permanent metal hand?" Itachi asked, picking up the heavy hand from the ground with a little difficulty.

"Because it's easier, besides, some things are needed for others," I took the hand from him, activating its function, high-pressure water.

He nodded; a tiny little nod.

"Now, you two, spar, taijutsu only; and while ninja should be deceitful, this is a test, I mean only taijutsu."

The two went at it for a few minutes, with Shisui being the eventual victor, his slightly older age and superior speed winning over Itachi's more intelligent and refined style.

"Both of you properly stretch in the morning I hope."

"Yes, Sensei."

"Good," I walked over to the two, healing their bruises and cuts with ease, "Someday I'll teach you this, if you want. Don't answer now; think about it for a couple years."

Once I was done healing them, we went over some things Shisui hadn't been exposed to before, like my philosophy of chakra, chakra strings, everything he needed to catch up. The kid was intelligent, and while not so reserved as Itachi, I still liked him.

XX

The days continued until the day for Mikoto to give birth came.

We brought her to the hospital, and all the whole family sat in the waiting room, with Itachi on Fugaku's slowly weakening knee. He couldn't do anything strenuous you see, so his muscles naturally atrophied to a level he could keep up with. Around genin-level, all considered.

Eventually the doctor came out, "It's a boy." Well, that's good at least, "You should go see her now."

We all got up as one man, walking briskly to the room where Mikoto lay, holding the tiny infant.

"Our second baby, Fugaku."

"Yes my darling, our second son."

I kept my face blank; there was no need to show emotion here. And while outwardly my attention was on Sasuke, my real attention was focused on Itachi. Ever quiet and observant, the child merely watched, barely noticeable.

Interesting, he merely observed how others treated the newborn, rather than going in and taking part himself. He seemed the sort to remain content, in almost any situation.

We took Sasuke home that same day, and on the third day after that Fugaku came to me complaining about how his wife had gone to show her baby to Kushina.

On the subject of Kushina, she really should have given birth already, but she hadn't, and the doctors didn't want to risk upsetting the seal by cutting the baby out. So, her long pregnancy continued.

I reckoned Minato would be stressing out about it, so I decided to visit.

"Hokage-sama," I greeted; my mind fully aware that this might be the last time we met outside a fight for our lives.

"Oh? Nanashi, wonderful, what brings you here?" He cheerfully broke off from the papers he was examining.

_Death God Seal, most likely, _I thought, "I thought you might want to talk."

"About what?" He acted quite perplexed.

"I, in all my great wisdom, have concluded that you are probably nervous about Kushina."

"And here I was thinking we'd actually kept it a secret."

"You did, but not from me."

"It's hard on me you know, having to run the village and dance around Kushina, never being able to be really open about my feelings."

"Personally? You shouldn't have made it a secret, it's pointless."

"Do you think so?"

"What do you gain by it? Those who would want to steal the child are hardly less likely to make an attempt on him if they don't know."

"Maybe. But Jiraiya-sensei thinks otherwise."

"Don't be too concerned Minato, Kushina is a strong kunoichi, and she'll have the very best midwives." I changed the subject back to the birth itself.

"Ah, I suppose so; Biwako-san has already volunteered." He admitted, scratching the back of his skull.

"But that's not what you're really worried about is it?"

"I didn't expect you'd think it was either." Minato took on a serious tone, "Frankly, the possibility of the Kyuubi being released terrifies me; it could destroy half of Konoha."

"And that's why you're studying risky seals, I presume."

"So you saw. Yes, I'm prepared to seal the beast if it does get out. No offense to Mito-sama, but I don't know if the seal will hold during birth."

"I think that without any external problems, we'll have no trouble, but if it is released, I'll handle it."

"What do you mean handle it?"

"I mean hold it still until you seal it, I can do it." My eyes took on a strong look.

"It's good to know I can rely on you Nanashi, you've reassured me, thanks." His voice was quite sincere.

"It is of no trouble to this humble servant, please excuse me."

"I'll see you later, my friend."

I left him behind, happy to have encouraged one of my few friends in this world. But this was not my last visit for the day by any means, I really needed to get a read on Miyuki, if she was hostile, lots could go wrong.

So I went over to her place, "Miyuki, we've met each other many times now, it's about time you showed your face."

"What if I use a henge?"

"Then you do, but this is not acceptable, I'll fight you if I have to."

"Something tells me you've used this threat before, scary."

I was agitated, more so than usual, the tension over possible Tobi replacements stressing me out. So my temper was shorter than normal, and I was in no mood for her usual sarcasm.

"Fine," I unsealed my sand in a rapid movement, capturing her in an unbelievably short time.

"Ugh, you aren't such a gentleman are you?"

"And all your bravado was pointless, clearly."

"Just because you're stronger than you even think doesn't make me weak."

"Hnn? I think I have a fairly good idea how strong I am."

"You have no idea."

"Let's go." My sand still holding her, we took off into the air, flying a couple miles away to where no one was around.

"Mind loosening your sand, Uchiha? It's getting hard to breathe."

"I'm sure it is," I walked over to where she was upright, calling it standing would be foolishness, she was held in position solely by my sand. I threw back her hood, revealing an attractive face and very light pink hair. Her face was slightly narrow, and she had a smallish nose.

"You dye your hair?"

"Yeah, what's it to you?" She had dark blue eyes, and the left side of her face had an old scar, a burn.

"What's its original color?"

"I ain't sayin'" The sand tightened its grip, coming very near to breaking a bone.

"Fine… black," She bit out with the last of her breath.

"Alright," My sand fell away, but a belt, and bracelets, remained.

"About time you let me go a little," She spoke bravely after wheezing for around half a minute.

"Yes, I believe so."

"So, have you satisfied your sadistic side or are you going to start cutting me?"

Like I said, she was very sarcastic, "I believe I'm alright now." But I hadn't learned emotional control by rising to every provocation.

"You know, you are the most boring person I've ever met."

"I'd have thought flying was rather exciting."

"Now what, you're going to start crushing my wrists until I tell you my name?" She ignored my previous cheerful statement.

"There are better ways to get it out of you, aren't there?" I smiled; an evil smile that promised traumatic pain.

"Like what?"

A flame let up at the tip of my finger, "Your kind, well, I've taken a little psychology you know," I grinned as I brought the flame closer to her burn mark.

She leaned back just as far as she could, "Get away from me!"

"Oh? Ready to spill your name?"

"You already have a name for me, what does my name from the past matter?"

"Precisely!" I turned off the heat, backing away a little, "See? A little logical argument and I'll back off."

She indicated that I was conceived outside of wedlock and then continued, "I hate you."

"They say hate is the emotion closest to love, you know?" I totally disagreed, but that's another topic.

"Close or far, you have no heart; you're just a sick ninja who's been brainwashed."

"True, torture isn't morally amiable by common standards. But I like to think that only I have washed my brain."

"You think whatever you want, you didn't start this evil."

"What's this? Man is basically good? Ridiculous! I started _more _evil." I inferred from her tone that this was, truly, the start she meant.

"I'll never be able to convince you of anything, will I?"

"But you already have, you convinced me to not torture you, for now anyway."

"What do you want?"

"I want to know if you're hostile to my interests."

"And what are those?"

"Currently, the interests of my clan, and Konoha at large."

"I don't really care, right now your clan is keeping me fed and housed, so I have no quarrel, and I have no interest in Konoha."

"Well, that was easy wasn't it, and I had to ask what, a hundred times?"

"Just because I'm a private person…"

"Means I have to force it out of you, yes it does." I looked right at her, "Let's get you home, Miyuki-san."

My sand wrapped around her, and we flew comfortably back to the Uchiha clan's compound. I dropped her off at her home, "Please forgive this presumptuous man for molesting you; I hope your understandable hate for me fades."

She threw her hood back on, entering her house without a word.

I lifted my chin, my sand putting itself back into its scroll as my eyes narrowed for a second. We shall see, little girl. I turned away, using the body flicker to arrive at my house; there I bathed, rubbing myself with oil.

Preparation for battle, for it might very soon come.

In the morning, I checked my bank account; I was running seriously low; all the metal, pipes, screws, nuts, bolts and tools I had been buying had really started to stack up. I wasn't poor yet, but I would by now if I wasn't leeching my meals off the Uchiha money.

Of course, I myself paid money to the Uchiha treasury while I was active, and would again soon once I got myself reactivated.

**XXX**

I presented myself as usual to teach Itachi and Shisui, and the two arrived right on time. They got proper instruction from yours truly, and then I sent them home.

My puppets pretty much got the ignore card at this point, there was no way I was going to waste them in a battle against a fox the size of town. Instead, I focused on chakra chains, strings, cables, and whatever else I could possibly use to bind the thing.

If it came right down to it, I'd have to let Minato kill himself to seal the Kyuubi, but I was confident I could actually crush it with my sand if I needed to. It was all theoretical though, I'd never seen a Biju, let alone one in action.

But somehow I doubt they're much more powerful than Rasa, more troublesome and resilient, but not more powerful. I'd see in due time.

The night came for Naruto's birth, the only date I could remember from the series, October 10th. For myself, I was on high alert, but the village was peaceful, unaware of the great danger that could be looming just over the horizon.

A couple of hours passed peacefully, and I was beginning to think I might have prevented Madara for good. But then it came, a pulse of chakra, inhuman, malevolent chakra. Sensors in the village began to wake, their light sleep disturbed by the phenomenon.

A flew up, coming to the place where the chakra had come from. The baby was crowning just as I arrived, and the Kyuubi was furiously trying to get out along with it. I unsealed my sand in preparation for the possible future.

I was unable to get closer, a result of a barrier around the area.

Minato glanced up at me, "You felt it?"

"I did, don't let down the barrier for me, but if someone gets in, take it down."

"And how would anyone get in?"

I activated my Sharingan, "Like that. He's going to try to release the Kyuubi." I said dryly, just as a man wearing a black cloak and oni-mask entered the barrier. On second thought, perhaps I was entirely to calm when I said that.

"Who are you?" Minato asked hurriedly, still leaving up the barrier like the idiot he was. The man ignored him, dashing forward and placing his hand on Kushina's stomach.

Minato threw a kunai, but it was too late to stop the inevitable, the Kyuubi was released.

"I'll handle the beast, you take care of him!" I yelled, not wanting to face whatever Mangekyou tricks the man inevitably had.

The barrier broke, the Biju too powerful, and much too large, to be contained by it. I unsealed all of the sand I had when I saw just _how _massive it was.

"**Uchiha!" **It roared in anger as it gazed upon my Sharingan.

"That's right, tell me creature, where is Madara?" I began the taunting without delay.

"**Dead, I killed him! Just as I will kill you!"**

"Your lies are as bad as your sense of humor. Perhaps he is dead now? But not by you."

Minato killed the interloper just as we finished our little conversation, well, almost. It was a shadow clone, and Mask got away. I knew I should have said 'kill him'. Minato teleported to both me and the Kyuubi, taking us along for a ride to a location beyond the village limits.

"Minato, you idiot, you let him get away!"

"I drove him off, he's gone."

"You don't understand, how long do you think he's gone for, forever? He obviously has no love for Konoha."

"Oh."

My sand whipped around the frame of the Kyuubi, fighting its massive paws and legendary nine tails.

"So what's your plan?" I asked, ready to sigh at the inevitable answer.

"I'll seal it inside Naruto."

"Right, right, and then who'll be Hokage? Sarutobi again."

"You know?" He was surprised to a great degree that I had an idea of the consequences of his plan.

"I know a lot of things, I also know that your wife is going to come and kill herself fighting against this darn thing unless you do it fast."

"Ah, right," He summoned a toad I could only assume was Gamabunta, "Help Nanashi out, I'll be right back." His figure disappeared in a flash that accentuated his striking yellow hair.

Tons of sand landed directly atop the beast, just as it prepared the catastrophic attack known as Bijudama. The beast was interrupted, and struggled to rise.

"Something tells me that you aren't happy. So many puny humans who can beat you, isn't it just devastating?" I gave it a pitying look.

"**Die!"** Two of the tails lunged at me with a level of speed that most ninja would never achieve, but I dodged it like one dodges a kunai, playfully.

"You know, little beast, I know your name."

"**I severely doubt it."**

"Then perhaps you've forgotten it, Kurama."

"**Who told you that name, human?" **Kurama demanded indignantly.

"Let's just say you tell someone in the future."

"**Never!" **Five tails lunged at me, but I dodged them just as easily as the two. Desperately the Kyuubi flailed its tails, unbalancing itself in a manner fortunate for itself, enough sand slipped off that it could rise once again.

"**How now, little human? Are you afraid?" **

"Well, you are big, but size doesn't mean _that _much." I picked my nose casually, "You know, I'm interested in making a deal with you."

"**You, with me? I'll make you a deal, die, and I won't rip you into a million pieces!"**

"Only 999,999? Wow, sounds good, you should really sign me up." Chakra chains came out my hands, each shooting for a tail.

"**Then I will!" **The best lunged, trying to gobble me up, but hilariously tripped over itself after my chains attached themselves to its tails. Dust flew everywhere as the beast crashed to earth, trees and ground alike flattened by its fall.

At this point, Minato arrived, baby in hand and seal half-complete.

"You know Minato; there are better places to get the seal finished then right on the battlefield."

He ignored my statement, too busy writing on a huge scroll and on Naruto's tiny stomach.

The Kyuubi roared in defiance, trying to make another Bijudama, but a giant fist of sand knocked it on the jaw, and the chakra ball shot to outer space.

"I wonder; if this were a separate planet, if the telescope satellite would pick that up." I mumbled, and then turned my attention back to the furious beast, "Ouch, Kyuubi is down, Nanashi's punches sure pack the power."

Before Minato finished the seal, I wanted to try something. I looked into Kurama's eyes, and cast a genjutsu on the beast. Curiously, it worked. I then realized it, Madara didn't even need the Mangekyou to control the beast, a simple eye-genjutsu could do it!

"Now, now, this is truly intriguing, to think the prideful and powerful Kyuubi was so easy to control."

I manipulated the things head, causing it to shoot Bijudama after Bijudama into the air. I almost laughed, it was too hilarious, to think it was so easy to alter its chakra-brain, or whatever it had.

But my control was imperfect and the Kyuubi broke free, the creature roaring in anger and triumph, and then charging at me with fury. But the thing's infinite anger, malice, and pure destructive nature worked against it once more, my chakra chains had never left its tails, only loosened.

But this time I seriously pulled, and the Kyuubi literally flipped over, landing on its back, facing the opposite direction. I then took off from the ground, flying above the Kyuubi, higher than its tails could reach.

It was a long distance, farther than my genjutsu could really reach, but that didn't matter, Minato was almost done. He would die, his soul consumed in exchange for the most powerful seal known to any being I'd heard of. Well, unless the Rikudo Sennin and family had something better, not impossible.

The Kyuubi now tried to make a Bijudama once more, but earthen spears sprang up from the earth and stabbed its jaw. Kurama was clearly very annoyed by the repeated interruptions of its glorious charges, techniques, and general awesomeness. Because really, while I was getting a lower on chakra, and it'd never run out, the beast was really being shown up here.

But it was not to last forever if Kurama had a say; the creature tangled its tails, snapping the chakra chains that clung to them. Faster than before, the creature charged a Bijudama, but this time compressed, and then swallowed it.

I didn't remember exactly what that meant, but I knew it wasn't healthy for me.

I widened my eyes, suddenly falling, my sand no longer supporting me. The Kyuubi grinned as best it could, using it's intelligence to aim for where I would be when the attack was released.

As soon as the Kyuubi began releasing it, I swerved up and to the left, my fall a trick. The aim was set though, and a cone with a moderate angle immerged from Kurama's mouth, the very edge coming into contact with my hasty defense.

In the split second before the attack reached me, I had activated my Rasengan defense, a large sphere of incredibly fast chakra spinning around me.

The defense was blown through, and a small fraction of the attack hit me, blasting me away into the air. I traveled around a third of a mile before I recovered.

I dived back again, my sand beginning to move once more, surrounding the beast's feet.

I was lucky I had worn my armor; it didn't do _that _much, but at least it kept my organs safe and my bones from breaking. My exposed skin however, was red and raw, the explosive chakra of the Kyuubi's attack having damaged me.

The battle had lasted long enough though, and now Minato arrived, seal finished properly. The seal was activated; the Kyuubi was helpless to stop it, new chakra chains holding its tails and sand keeping its paws immobile.

The Kyuubi's figure distorted, sucked away to two different places, half to Minato, and the other half to Naruto. It was foolish, the blonde had plenty of time; he could have concocted a stronger version of the eight point seal and put the whole thing in Naruto safely. But no, he had to die heroically, sacrificing himself to seal half the beast's power away forever.

I glanced over to where he Minato's body lay, finally noticing Kushina who cried over his corpse.

I touched down next to her as the ninja population of Konoha arrived, organized by Sarutobi, and led by the same. My sand came to me, coming into its holding scrolls once more.

I frowned, I knew Minato would die as soon as Mask went into the barrier, but it still sucked. I wasn't a very open person, nor was I emotional, but it still hurt to know I couldn't save the fool.

"Sandaime-sama, it seems you'll be Hokage again, for at least a little bit." I commented as I came before the aged figure of Hiruzen.

"The Kyuubi escaped." He stated, sighing.

"Not quite, the one who released it escaped however."

"Released it? I though the birth was inside a barrier."

"It was, and I will tell you my conjecture," I glanced at the ninja, small and great, behind him, "Privately."

He closed a single eye, narrowing the other, "Alright," He motioned to the Anbu, and they recovered Kushina and the baby.

Sarutobi and I journeyed over to the Hokage's office, and entered, privacy seals glinting as the legend activated them, "Alright, this is as private as it gets."

"The only person able to get through a barrier that strong so quickly is an Uchiha."

He nodded, "And why would you tell me?"

"Whoever it was will soon enough come again, taking the name Madara. Whether he really is or isn't doesn't matter, he's insane and must be crushed."

"Madara," He rubbed his beard, "It has been a long time since I heard mention of him."

"I'm not surprised."

"Anything else?" Nothing I'm going to tell you, old man.

"I'll give my report to the Hokage in the morning." There was little doubt Sarutobi would be reinstated, for at least a few months, but it didn't hurt to observe protocol.

"Yes, do that, and fare well."

"To you as well," I saluted, making my way to the door.

I walked out the door, flying the remaining distance to the Uchiha clan compound. The whole village was agitated, but only a few buildings had been damaged by the Kyuubi. In the end, while I got a couple hours less sleep, one might say nothing had happened that October tenth.

**XXXX**

**Did you really think I'd let Minato live… naïve fools. But Kushina is alive, so yay for that eh?**

**Who is Mask? Is he really a he? You won't know till it come in the story, period.**

**Review or PM me, if you want, about who you think Nanashi should marry, or if he should stay a nice little bachelor. It can be as unspecific as OC, or as detailed as it can be while understandable.**

**Love, hate, wanna kill me? Tell it to me with the power of the review,**

**Your Author, Iamwhononofyouare**


	24. Chapter 24, Aftermath

**Disclaimer: You should realize this by now, but I don't own Naruto.**

**Short A/N: Orochimaru is weaker (right now) then canon-Orochimaru.**

**Chapter 24,**

Sarutobi took over as Hokage once more, putting on the hat for a second time.

Since that was the case, I recited my account of the affair the night before, leaving out my conversation with the Kyuubi. No one needed to know about that. Privately, I also confided in him that I was briefly able to control the beast, but the general public knew nothing of this.

Upon my request, I was reinstated as an active ninja, and was now hero #2 in Konoha's eyes. Number one was Minato, of course, and he deserved it.

While Konoha had taken a little bit of damage; casualties numbered two, excluding Minato. Most of the buildings that the Kyuubi had crushed by its untimely appearance had been insured, so there was no trouble there. On the other hand, everyone was aware of just _how _horrible it could have been.

Still, life went on, and I taught Itachi and Shisui whenever I was around. A month after the attack, I saw fit to tag along with Mikoto on one of her visits to Kushina.

"My sincere condolences for your loss, I would that I might have prevented it."

Kushina might have blamed me five years ago, but she had matured, "You did what you could, if only that blonde idiot…" Would have used a less foolish seal; yes, that would have been nice.

I wasn't much for emotion, but it was still sobering to be around a mother who had lost her husband on the day their child was born. Kushina was corky, but I doubted she'd ever fully recover.

Mikoto just rubbed Kushina's back in a commiserating manner, her eyes almost ready to drop tears at the plight of her friend. I suppose that meant Kushina had told Mikoto about the marriage.

"I wish you the very best, and perhaps, when the time comes, I shall be able to teach the boy. It's a little fatalistic and unfair, but Naruto will have to become a ninja."

She rubbed the baby's forehead, nodding in response, "Yes, I'll have to raise him to be a healthy and energetic boy."

"Your husband was a friend, if you need anything at all, do not hesitate to ask me." Naruto was a very important character, in the series itself at least, and quite honestly I did want to help. At least this time the kid wouldn't be hated for what he held, the Kyuubi just hadn't killed enough people.

Sarutobi's announcement came the next day since rumors were already running rampant. He had to put an official statement out. He worded it quite well, but perhaps stressed how heroic Naruto was a little too strongly, spoiling him would do no good.

For myself, I resumed my shinobi life at nigh full-tilt. The missions were easy enough, although sometimes exhausting, and I began to save up money again.

On a side note, Tsunade left the village with her young apprentice, Shizune.

The months flew by quickly, adding up to years, and I looked forward to teaching both Sasuke and Naruto, probably together. That was, of course, if Kushina allowed it, but I supposed she would, since I wasn't exactly shady.

In the mean-time, Sarutobi had stepped down once more, in favor of Sakumo, but not before he'd found one of Orochimaru's labs. That brought us to the present.

It was horrible, that fool Orochimaru had been caught, and here he was, in front of me. I'd sought him out, knowing exactly where the man would go in this situation.

"So, Sensei, it seems the old man found out."

"That old fool always suspected; the idiot doesn't realize all the good I'm doing. Never will." He spat viciously, most might not see it, but I did. Orochimaru hated that his sensei didn't see the world the same way he did, and so he had begun to hate Hiruzen.

"I still owe you two favors, but it seems they might never be used."

"Oh? Loyal Nanashi is going to finish the big traitor?" He scoffed.

"You're going insane, Sensei. Can't you see it? If you were lucid do you really think Sarutobi could ever find one of your bases? He's good, but not that good."

"I'm not insane. I just didn't have the time to procure test subjects from farther afield."

I was twenty-eight, and more powerful than most Kages to have existed, "You cannot beat me, Sensei. I will take you into custody, if I must."

"You have grown arrogant, Nanashi! Come, let us see."

He sprang forward, and my Sharingan activated. I looked him in the eye, casting a genjutsu before he could look away. In the past two years I trained my Sharingan to a point that no living Uchiha could rival.

Orochimaru was good though, and he broke out of my genjutsu, but not before my sand had surrounded him, enveloping him just before he could activate the mole technique.

"I'm not altruistic, I knew of your experiments, but I did not stop them. Why? You are useful. Fight me and escape. Join Akatsuki, they'll recruit you, and tell me where I can find them, then this debt will be paid."

"Oh? We have a deal then, student." He scowled, but accepted that he had been defeated.

We fought spectacularly for a few minutes, and then the Sandaime showed up. Orochimaru spat some in-character arrogance and retreated, getting away before the Hokage could capture him.

"Forgive me, Sandaime-sama, I was not able to stop my wayward teacher."

Sarutobi was clearly grieved by his student's hatred and sadism. Not to mention the budding insanity, "Nor was I. I would that I might have seen it sooner, and somehow shown him the right path."

"It is a sad day when a student and his teacher separate under such circumstances." My face betrayed controlled emotion, though inside I felt nothing. This had to happen, and I was merely using it to my benefit.

"And now we must continue chasing down his twisted labs. How did you know he was here?"

"In an emergency, this is certainly the location he would come, he had much stored here, though I suppose he has taken it all with him."

"And you had no idea?" Sarutobi probed, wanting to see if I was involved in the experimentation.

"Orochimaru-sensei told me to not poke around in his stuff, so I complied."

"I see; it is a pity you are such an obedient fellow." He wasn't venomous about it, the man just truly hated it had gone this far.

"Yes, I suppose it is."

The Anbu along with Sarutobi hunted down every lab and bunker, finding in them experiments that made blood curdle, and a documentation of fatalities that staggered their minds. So many had died under their very noses, and they had no idea.

Orochimaru had taught me much over the years, and I owed a lot of my power to him. Nonetheless, I had grown more powerful than he, though Manda might have given me at least a little trouble. It was far better to let the fellow go, and let him become useful, rather than allow him to be captured. And, if he tried to take either Itachi or Sasuke's body, well, he'd be taught a little lesson.

A small amount of suspicion landed on me, that I might have aided Orochimaru, or withheld information concerning him, but my reputation was too spotless. I was a hero in Konoha, and Orochimaru's betrayal didn't change that.

But life went on, and Sakumo took up the hat, a fifth head beginning to show itself on the Hokage Mountain.

Itachi was now a genin, with a jonin-sensei of his own. Still, whenever he and I were at home and had time, I trained him.

Orochimaru left behind his team, and while I felt bad for them, I didn't fancy taking a team, and allowed the group to be picked up by another.

In my esteemed opinion, Tsunade had been gone long enough, and I proposed as such to the new Hokage, but in deference to Sarutobi and the Senju clan, he let it wait. In such a situation, I let the matter rest.

Life went on for another year, and then I began with Sasuke. The boy was three now, and I wasn't about to start later. I'd met him before, but young children didn't impress me, so to keep an open-mind I hadn't spent too much time around him. Probably wasn't the smartest choice, but I _was _a busy person.

I taught Sasuke for as long as his little body could manage, and then, on the same day as I began with him, took a hike over to Kushina's place. She'd fixed a nice home in the three years since Minato died, and had become a good mother.

"Kushina-san, I've begun teaching Sasuke, and I was wondering if I might also teach Naruto."

She looked down at Naruto as he played with some manner of pointless child's toy, "I'd rather he not get any special training until he enters the academy."

"Ah, a genuine believer in the childhood theory. I understand, you were raised that way, and I was raised the clan way. I shall be happy to begin whenever you wish, until then, I, as always, shall respect your wishes."

"You plan on becoming his jonin-sensei don't you?" She looked me in the eye.

"That is the intention; eventually other villages shall catch word of him, if they haven't already. Indeed, even now Kumo is sending an ambassador who boasts considerable infiltration skill. So I do believe he should have the very best, and not to be arrogant, but I do fit that description."

"Well, I certainly don't believe you to be a bad person, Nanashi-san, but Naruto is very precious to me."

"Yes, I can understand that. I also expect both Kakashi and Obito would like to have a chance at becoming his sensei."

She smiled at that, she liked both of them. Since Kakashi's father, who he idolized, hadn't died, he turned out quite a bit different from cannon-Kakashi. He valued human life, and he never believed that the rules were more important than people. Still, his basic nature was to be a reclusive genius, and he hadn't passed the teen years yet.

"Then you'll have to find out some sort of way to compromise, don't you think?"

I smiled, "I'm sure we can cook up something, in any case Kushina-san, I look forward to when we next meet, please excuse me."

My business complete, and being highly economic, I immediately left after my objective was fulfilled. Kushina was nicer these days, not annoying as when she was in the academy, but; we'll leave it there.

In the morning I picked up Sasuke once more, "Sasuke, up with vigor, the morning is the time to begin the day!"

"_This _is not morning, it's nighttime, go away." This brat, his mind was muddled by slumber no doubt.

"I am your teacher, and I am instructing you in the proper way to live." I pulled his covers off.

"Cold!" Sasuke yelled, clutching for his blanket, but I already held it far out of his reach.

"To not be a morning person to this degree, tch, tch, even I am negatively affected."

Clearly, I was far too profound for the three year-old mind of a fairly normal kid. The little kid didn't even understand half of what I'd said, but he _did _get up and get dressed.

"Now, if I told you we were going out to throw punches at dummies what would you say?" Testing starts at day one and doesn't ever stop my friends.

"Ok…?"

"Idiot, do you think obedience is my only code?" I shook my head, "No, first we must prepare." I stretched my body out, and Sasuke copied, remembering the day before well enough.

"Even the smartest person can give a stupid order," I looked him in the eye, "At the same time; you can't question every order publically; that's why you have a mind. I hope to coach you, at least in part, on what is senseless or not, but in the end, you are your own person."

He nodded mutely, and then we left to the training ground.

Children have pitiful attention spans, so it was important to lecture for five or so minutes, and then do something physical for a little while. For children, this method worked. For young people, this was necessary on some level or another.

Sasuke was no genius, nor was he some transported or reincarnated existence like myself, but nonetheless, he wasn't stupid. He was an Uchiha. Sasuke was instructed in hand-eye coordination and physical fitness, in preparation for kunai and shuriken throwing.

I also continued in his taijutsu training, using a puppet of similar size against the boy. Sparring is the best way to improve after all. And so he grew in intelligence and power at my behest.

The Kumo ambassador arrived the next week, and I alerted Hiashi that they might try to steal a child from his clan, specifically Hinata. I also cautioned him to; if they did capture a child, leave the sucker alive. Because of this intervention, Hizashi most certainly did not die.

One year passed, with me leaving behind shadow clones to train Sasuke and only taking short term missions. Shadow clones didn't produce chakra, and, depending on the user's control, they gradually lost chakra, since mine was very good, my shadows clones lasted in proportion. A very long time it was, but not two months or some such thing.

As a direct result of constant assassinations, my stealth skills had gone up drastically.

Because let's be honest, assassination and protection made up something around 95% of all ninja missions. And protection details took time, more time then I was willing to spend, so I killed people for money instead.

At the years close, Sakumo sent me out after Tsunade for one simple reason: International conflict was becoming likely. Despite the treaty with Konoha, Kumo was jealous of its strength, Iwa hated us plain and simple, while Mizu fancied itself strong enough to have another go.

Rumor had it that those three were corroborating, planning an assault on Konoha itself. But they had no confirmed accuracy; it was just rumors and tension.

Sakumo was utterly detested by Chiyo, so the chance they'd attack wasn't low, though Suna would be loath to ally with Iwa. In any case, no village was strong enough to beat Konoha alone, and they knew it.

Still, tension was high, and while Sakumo was war-weary, with Ohnoki the same, both villages had war-hawks. Take Danzo for example, the fellow was hyperaware of Konoha's strength, and was trying to spark a war himself. The old fool was probably more than half the reason for the current situation.

But that's another matter, Tsunade was the focus here.

I sealed provisions in a suitable quantity and set out, leaving behind a couple clones. They might not last the whole time, but at least Sasuke wouldn't lose too many days of training.

Tsunade traveled the continent, gambling and drinking up a storm; somehow, she always got idiots to lend her money, although she never paid them back. Her debt was already famously large, but she moved a lot, so finding her wasn't always easy.

But, for me, as long as I knew the general direction she traveled in, I could go seven times as fast in that same direction, and so close the distance. So, after bribing and cajoling a few people, I was directly on her trail, and I caught up shortly after, it'd taken eleven days.

Typically, the Senju princess was at a bar, drinking her life away, while her apprentice held a pig, Tonton, if I wasn't an idiot. Tsunade _looked _quite young, and was physically attractive, but she was, nonetheless, in her forties.

I walked quite officially over to where she sat, "Senju Tsunade, by the power vested in me by the Godaime Hokage, Hatake Sakumo, I hereby order your immediate return to your duties as a jonin of Konohagakure no Sato. Failure to comply will not be taken lying down, to put it lightly." I stated my purpose with efficiency and without undue aplomb.

Tsunade preformed some sort of technique, probably to purge the alcohol, and then turned to me, "Who are you, brat?"

"Forgive this one's impoliteness, I am Uchiha Nanashi."

"An Uchiha huh? Get lost."

"Not possible, getting lost is very difficult for me."

"You think you're funny? I'm never going back to that village." She was quite vicious in her dislike for Konoha it seemed.

"You are, Senju." I informed sternly, I severely doubted her chance of beating me was high. Call it arrogance, but she _was _almost four years out of practice.

"You looking for a fight, Uchiha?"

"I'll make you a bet, if I can beat you and your apprentice together; you return to the village, if I lose, I'll pay off half your debts." This was faster, and less taxing, then using the dead-loved ones card.

Tsunade liked the sound of money within her grasp, "In cash."

"As you wish, this Flying Sand Devil will abide by his word; let's get out of the pub."

We exited the bar, and Shizune put Tonton down, assuming a stance. I'd take care of her first; her resume stated that she used poisons and senbon, an annoying distraction.

I grabbed my sand scrolls, "Shall we begin?"

Tsunade charged at me, chakra empowering her strike to the extent it could break concrete. I unsealed my sand, immediately taking to the air.

"As you can see, your loss is inevitable," It was an S-rank ninja's right and honor to gloat over their opponents. I'll admit; it could be a fun practice.

Sand moved, attempting to wrap up Shizune, but the young kunoichi was fast, and she evaded my initial lunge. I dived, removing the glove on my right hand, revealing a non-standard hand, it was simply a cylinder.

I pointed it directly at the apprentice, and used it. A thick, and seal-enhanced, net came forth, capturing a shadow clone.

Impressive.

Tsunade charged at me, leaping into the air, high enough to reach my low altitude.

"As they say, you can't dodge in the air." Sand intercepted her strike and wrapped around her body, clamping down on her roughly. All my sand enveloped the Sannin, and I left only her face exposed. She was in the air, so tricks were out of the question.

I turned back to the apprentice just in time to dodge some poisoned senbon, shot from an intriguing launcher. Curious, had she invented it herself? It was different from my own idea, and required both hands, but yes, curious.

I landed nearby, and attacked, now wielding the wind. Shizune however, did not notice, and used the Poison Mist technique; air came and blew it away. I grabbed the apprentice's throat, holding her up with just my left arm.

"Your skill-set is not well-suited to dealing with me." Indeed, I was close to the worst enemy for Tsunade, for I could fly. Her strength enhancement bolstered her jumps considerably, but I had the Sharingan, and could easily dodge. And because of that same doujutsu, her punches seemed quite telegraphed.

Her speed was good, but mine was better. Her lack of common ninjutsu that could be used at a long distance was a real pit-fall. Just one of the sacrifices she had to make to become the best medic-nin to ever live.

"So, I win, yes?"

Tsunade attempted to break out of the enormous quantity of sand that restrained her, but was unable to.

"You win."

I allowed Shizune to go; then bowed to her, "Forgive this Nanashi for grabbing you."

"Don't worry about it." She glanced at me, "Thanks."

Ah, "It is my job, no?"

"Still, Tsunade-sama is ruining herself; I hope going back to Konoha will help her."

"As do I. It is a sad day when a ninja becomes a despondent buffoon, apologies for insulting your sensei."

She smiled wryly, "Just don't let her know."

My sand returned to my scroll after setting Tsunade down. I tucked the precious, and somewhat worn, scrolls back inside my jacket.

"For anyone, flight is truly the ultimate technique."

"Yeah, yeah," Tsunade walked back inside the bar.

"Immediately, Tsunade-sama, by no means did I joke."

"Shut up, sit down, and have a drink."

Clever, but I'm not an idiot, "I'll pass."

"Tch," Tsunade was clearly displeased that her plan had been thwarted. Now, one might wonder just what her plan was, but Tsunade was a master of poisons, and I wasn't going to drink of what she offered.

"I'll give you thirty minutes to pack up."

Shizune immediately ran off to the hotel they were staying at, and I sent a shadow clone to follow her. The order applied to both after-all. Shizune efficiently packed up what supplies they owned, and then returned to the pub.

"Tsunade-sama, I have everything."

Tsunade finished her drink, paying the bartender for what she'd guzzled. Then she, predictably, lunged at me, attempting to knock me unconscious.

I dodged swiftly, countering with a kunai to her shoulder. She brought her other fist around, trying to pummel me to oblivion. My Sharingan activated, and I jumped back, running out of the bar.

Tsunade pursued, no doubt wary of me unsealing my sand, but that was not the intention.

"I can declare you a missing-nin now, if I wanted to, then I could take your head." I gathered CO2 around her face, preventing her from getting a proper amount of oxygen as I dodged her attacks by hairs.

From her face, I reckoned she was wondering if she was truly this out of shape. She _was _out of shape, but not to the degree she looked, the Sannin was already panting.

"You… what poison is this?" She caught on… sort of.

"It's not really poison, it's just air."

"You're lying."

"Alright, you need oxygen for your blood and muscles, especially when you're exerting yourself. I just made you breathe non-oxygen."

"Clever brat, any other tricks?"

"A few, but I'll show you one." I cut my skin with chakra; then healed it before much blood could come out.

Tsunade stopped her pointless punching as she looked at the spot I'd just regenerated, "Interesting, your chakra control must be good."

"Indeed."

"Konoha is a death-trap, why would I go back?"

"True, it has nothing of value to you, I'd understand if you left. But at the same time, it does have value to you, or you would have sincerely tried to kill me."

"What says I didn't?"

"You didn't activate your chakra." By this of course, I meant her seal that contained chakra.

"True, but I don't need that to finish a punk like you." Arrogance is not a virtue, but it was perhaps true. Ironically of course, I'd just defeated her.

"Now, you are beaten. You've had a vacation long enough, time to get back to work."

She narrowed her eyes, "Just my luck, why'd I ever accept your bet?"

"Perhaps because the rewards were good if you won."

"Shizune, let's go."

We returned to the village, but Tsunade refused to enter, "I won't go inside, I'll play med-nin for you, but I'm not going in there."

"I'll inform the Hokage." I entered the village and reported to Sakumo on the situation.

"Hokage-sama, Tsunade-sama is outside the village, and refuses to enter."

"Is that so? I'll go talk with her." Sakumo got up, leaving his office to persuade Tsunade.

What he said or did, I do not know, but what I do know is that Senju Tsunade entered the village, taking up the responsibility of chief medic. She took her place on the clan council, and pushed for greater quantities, and greater quality, of medic-nin.

I received no pay for the mission, I refused to take any. Indeed, seeing a great kunoichi have life again was enough for me. I paid visits to Shizune, to learn more medical techniques.

She was young, and certainly not ugly, but to say I had fallen in love at first sight would be a gross overstatement. I did, admittedly, enjoy her company; our personalities were similar, though she had nervous breakdowns more than I. Well, she was also kinder and more open, while I held stoicism high.

She, as I found after a few weeks, saw her life's purpose as caring for Tsunade. I did not agree, Tsunade had certainly done much for her, but to become some sort of slave was not equivalent exchange.

"Shizune, you can't really indeed to stay with Tsunade for forty years or however long she'll last. It's pointless and stupid."

"Tsunade-sama needs me."

"She has a drinking habit yes, and enjoys gambling, but that's hardly your responsibility."

"She had been very good to me, and she deserves no less in return. And while her habits are… off-putting sometimes, I can't leave her."

"And Orochimaru-sensei has been good to me, though he has faults, and yet I did not go with him."

"That's not the same."

"It's very close, Shizune, think on it."

She was nineteen, and not yet fully mature. Tsunade had certainly looked after her while she was young, but this and that are different matters. To throw one's life away was irrational, and despite her logical thinking on most matters, Shizune refused to give in.

It annoyed me for no apparent reason, but my mind was set on it, and my diligence refused to give in. Some might call me stubborn I suppose.

**XXX**

Sasuke was quite good, when it came right down to it. The fellow was talented, there was no doubt about that, and I was certainly glad to teach him. He adored his Itachi-nii to an unhealthy degree, but otherwise he didn't have severe faults.

He hadn't really been exposed to children his age, besides Naruto, so he hadn't quite had a chance to feel very prideful; of course, he still was just a four year old. And four year olds could be quite… pretentious.

"I'm not doing anything you say!" Sasuke informed me that morning, quite determined.

"Eat food." Problem solved. I sent him home for the day, and the brat seemed quite triumphant. Sasuke didn't get it yet. I invited myself over to dinner that night.

"Yummy!" Food was smeared on Sasuke's cheeks, but at least he hadn't spilled anything.

"Remember when you said you wouldn't do anything I said? I said 'eat food'."

Itachi's face curled into a smile as he recognized what was happening.

"Doesn't count, everybody eats!"

"But you still did something I said to do. Thus your word is broken, we'll do double work tomorrow." I paused for a minute, "Couldn't even keep his word for a day, tsk, tch, how sad."

His face took a shade of pink, not happy with the public chiding; but the brat had no retort, so he just pouted.

"Don't spoil your supper, Sasuke, eat." Fugaku ordered, a hollow cough following his statement. Clearly the lack of a lung wasn't child's play.

"I haven't seen him for a while, how's Shisui?" I turned my face to Itachi.

"He's doing well."

"That's good then."

We finished our meal without further conversation of note, and I returned to my own home. In the morning, I picked up a despondent Sasuke.

"Please don't make me do double."

"I won't nor did I, you did."

His face contorted in disagreement, but the boy said nothing. We did do double, and I had to carry the kid home. I gave him the next day off, with a strict warning to not repeat his stupidity.

After he was safely in bed, napping, I again visited Shizune at the hospital. She worked as Tsunade's assistant, and was very busy. Still, I cut into her precious time shamelessly.

"I have come to call, Shizune-san."

"Back to '-san'? Tut, tut, Nanashi, just call me Shizune."

"Or I could call you -chan." I was older, so it wouldn't be very strange. Of course, she was teaching me iryojutsu, so it would be very strange; funny how that goes.

"Just pick up those files, walk and talk."

I smiled, picking up the indicated stack and following Shizune to the filing room. Shizune wore her black Kimono as usual, white Obi in place. I caught myself gazing uselessly at her back as we walked to our destination, strange.

I helped out for another fifteen minutes, and then returned home, to train in my ninja arts.

"Hyoton: Rasengan." The ball of chakra went right through the training post, and what remained was cold. Indeed, the Hyoton: Rasengan was what it sounded like, a Rasengan made with ice chakra. Not physical ice, just to be clear, but it looked icy enough.

A fire-natured Rasengan was somewhat pointless, so I hadn't pursued that avenue. A dirt ball was hilarious, but fairly impossible, far too much friction. Lightning nature wasn't exactly what I was best at in the world, and Suiton was the definition of meaningless. So that left wind and ice, I couldn't yet do Futon; but I had most certainly demonstrated that I was capable of Hyoton.

My chakra began moving super-fast, and I channeled it to my feet. The grass crinkled and electricity sparked, Raiton. I hadn't ever stopped learning new things, and while a lot of my current focus was on iryojutsu, I certainly could spare time enough for this.

It was a ninja's glory to be able to use all the elements, and a shinobi's pride to combine them.

Unfortunately for my lightning, my metal hand often interfered, electricity was unruly and fast, so I'd zapped myself a few times. Eventually, I'd resorted to training it in my feet until I was at a level high enough to by-pass this disadvantage.

I stopped my lightning chakra, assuming a different pose. Chakra was expelled from my body at random, flooding the area. With a slight command, this would become what was called 'killing intent'. What killing intent was really was just a sum of chakra, expelled from the body, and given the loose command to intimidate, usually by pressing down on the subject.

The effect was accentuated in a number of ways, usually by assuming an imposing stance or a terrifying visage. To aid even further, genjutsu could be cast.

Orochimaru had refined it to the extent that people around him hallucinated about their own deaths by his hand, and didn't even think to break out of the genjutsu. It was impressive, but killing intent wasn't usually my thing, I preferred to not waste the chakra.

A cone of whirling chakra formed over my left fist, the offensive/defensive form of the Rasengan I had invented all those years ago, refined to this form. Chains emerged from the back of my neck, and my exposed hair straightened and stiffened.

I had diverse skills, and using them all at once was taxing, so I practiced in it.

All my techniques faded away after a few minutes. I then began in Doton training, making earthen structures of all sorts, needles, swords, halberds, anything interesting.

Once I was done, I dutifully but the dirt back in its proper place, to the extent that most genin could not tell you it had been disturbed. It felt good, to have such power, it gave confidence. But it was important to not allow that power to make you stupid.

XXXX

"Like this?" I finished setting the fractured ribs of some nameless person. The fellow groaned, but was been in too much pain to squeal.

"Just like that," Shizune complimented as I finished the rather simple operation. I'd had plenty of theoretical knowledge about all sorts of medical stuff before Shizune came along, but now I was actually getting my hands dirty.

A thought struck me, "I should pay you for all the time you spend on me." It wasn't quite fair to ask her to do it for free.

"Don't worry about it, just treat the next patient," It should be explained that I was now a certified, rank-C medic.

Stitching wounds was tedious in the extreme, so I just used my impressive chakra to speed through any minor injuries. After another two months, I moved onto real surgery. Like cutting people open kind of surgery.

Moved onto as in started watching it as a professional observer, you didn't think they'd let me cut living people open so soon, did you? Not unless it was an emergency.

I hated surgery. It took forever, it made blood go everywhere; it could go wrong in an instant.

Yeah, I'd just leave the real medic stuff to Shizune and Tsunade. I was fine just… No, that's lazy; I most certainly would learn advanced medical stuff. Eventually. Even with shadow clones I only had so much time in my life.

Back on to the topic of Shizune's pay though, I'd leeched off of her for long enough. It was time to take a stand like a man.

"Shizune, if you won't accept payment, at least let me take you to dinner."

The talented medic was visibly surprised by my proposal, "Uh, sure."

"Excellent, will tonight at 6:30 do?"

She checked her mental calendar, "Nothing formal, right?"

"As casual as you like it; I'll come over at the stated time."

**Authors Note: Uhhh, Nanashi is really overpowered, isn't he? My mistake. Nerf suggestions for As a Ninja 1.25 anyone? Lol, I hope you liked this chapter, people.**

**Am I really pairing Shizune with me? Or not… hmm, I believe I've teased you guys before. Eh, I have no memory, so whatever.**

**Hate, Love, near-suicide-at-how-bad-it-was, meh, or whatever else, **_**YOU **_**have the power to let me know.**

**Your Author, Iamwhononofyouare**


	25. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer: You, sir, or ma'am, have guessed it. I don't own Naruto. As such I lay no claim to it or its characters; I've grown attached to Nanashi though, so I'm claiming him.**

#English is being spoken#

**Chapter 25,**

XXXX

Most of my clothes were incredibly practical, nothing that would impress the ladies. But, the key word was most. An Uchiha must be ready at all times, and so I was.

Or not. It was too small, a few years is really too long, isn't it? I sighed exaggeratedly at my predicament, and immediately set off to find some sort of appropriate clothing.

Shizune had implied something fairly casual was on the menu, so I didn't go looking for silk or something like that. Still, it wouldn't do for me to come in a t-shirt and jeans, as it were.

I got myself a decent pair of hakama and picked up an appropriately sized Uchiha semi-formal clan jacket. The Uchiha had been around for a long time, they had their own clothes shop. On that note, all the clan jackets I had were professional or casual.

Make no mistake though; I certainly didn't have a high-collar. I hated that with a passion. Not that I was particularly passionate about anything.

I made my way over to Shizune's place, arriving at 6:20. I waited five minutes before she came out.

She was dressed in a solid green kimono with pink and yellow flowers at the waist, her hair down as usual; she wore her standard open-toed heels.

"You didn't wait long did you?" She asked politely.

"I would wait an eternity without complaint if it were for you… is what I'd say if I was a playboy. I'm not, so I'll be honest, I waited five minutes."

Shizune took it fairly well, "Your jokes need help Nanashi."

"I'm entirely serious in this case."

"No you're not, what are we eating?"

"I didn't really have a strong idea, but is tonkatsu alright with you?"

"I don't mind."

"Wonderful," I was almost thirty, and in my time I'd visited a few restaurants and ate a variety of foods. I knew just where to go.

We took a seat in the diner, and ordered the specialty of the place, tonkatsu. It was quite good here, but nothing expensive. Incidentally, this was just the way I liked it, no surprise I came here.

"So, Shizune; how's life?" Small talk wasn't the most efficient thing in the world, but with some smarts one could twist it into intelligence gathering. Plus I'd had a friend once; I small talked with him, blonde fool that he was.

"Busy, very busy, it was almost better when Tsunade-sama was wandering around." She sighed, "Almost, mind you."

"You know your problem Shizune?"

"What is it?"

"You're too concerned with how things should be, how you _ought _to feel. Thinking about that is alright, but it's not healthy if that's what you do all the time."

"Don't lecture me on health, Nanashi; I'm the one teaching you."

"In physical treatment, yes; but let's remember, I have decades of experience."

"So old," She teased lightly.

I gave a hollow chuckle in response, "Does life ever feel empty to you, Shizune? Do you ever feel it'd be better to just stop?"

"So you're suicidal?" She seemed quite surprised.

"I've worked my butt off for twenty-nine years, and I don't intend to stop. But my brain is always thinking, always planting ideas in my mind. Always reminding me that _I don't have to_, I don't. I do it anyway though." How ironic, here I was the one spilling beans.

"Why?"

"I have reasons, and they change all the time, but in the end, I'm just not willing to surrender the world to just anybody." While ruling the world might be a pain, there was no way I was letting someone else do it.

Our meal arrived then, and we dug into our delicious pork.

"How… global," Shizune continued the conversation.

"Not quite, I meant the elemental continent, who knows what is beyond the horizon?"

"Not I. Anyway, thanks for dinner."

"That sounds so final; we're not even close to done yet."

"I was just being grateful."

"Ah, yes, perfectly acceptable. How is Tsunade-sama?"

"She's doing alright, unfortunately she still drinks like there's no tomorrow."

"But wouldn't you be more concerned if she suddenly stopped?"

"Eh?" She thought on it for a minute, "Maybe; it'd be so unnatural."

"And there you have it; mankind takes comfort in constants, even if those constants don't always seem nice. Interesting, isn't it?"

"I suppose."

"I've always fancied myself as a philosopher, but life as a ninja is much more rewarding." I twirled a piece of the breaded pork in the air, nothing more than the air itself keeping it afloat.

"It's not a bad hobby." As she replied thus I snatched the piece of meat out of the air with my chopsticks, depositing it in my mouth.

"Thinking? That's what philosophy pretty much is; yes, it can be quite rewarding. But there, I've shared half my life with you, what's your hobby?"

She paused, "I don't have one I guess."

"A hobby keeps a man healthier than three doctors and all their prescriptions, what do you like to do?"

"I like to help people. Sewing perhaps?" 'Perhaps?' Hardly a hobby at that level.

Ah yes, how fitting for a medic, "How admirable, you do that already, so I suppose you do have a hobby, my mistake."

"It's more of a job I enjoy."

"Precisely; but if you totally enjoy your work, you don't need hobbies." The question was; did she totally enjoy it?

I'd conditioned myself to, at the very least, not mind my line of work, but Shizune was young and energetic, having a wild ambition would be normal. But no, despite her cheerful and friendly demeanor, she was quite content. Or perhaps the contentedness was why she was happy?

Indeed, a curious case. It merited a bit of investigation; which was good, because I wasn't done learning from Shizune in medical avenues. So, why would it be good you ask? Well, learning two or three things at once is the way to go.

Being around Shizune took a bit of the dullness of daily life away. I enjoyed the fresh company, with Fugaku and Itachi I'd burnt out most conversations. Who knew how long the novelty of her company would last, but for now, I was satisfied.

We finished our meal, and I, obviously, picked up the tab, paying for the meal.

I wasn't such a boor as to leave Shizune alone, so I escorted her back to her own home, disregarding that she was a jonin. Not many could attack someone like her and win.

"Well, Shizune, I hope the evening wasn't unpleasant, I'll leave you now."

"No, you're a deep conversationalist, it wasn't bad." She flashed me a grin.

"You're just trying to avoid hurting my feelings; I'm too stoical to be interesting. Good evening." I excused myself and journeyed home.

Well, the evening wasn't a failure, not that there was anything to fail. That night I slept as usual, dreamlessly.

It was strange really, I should have had a good number of nightmares from the war, but I couldn't remember having even one. Curious, yes, it was strange, perhaps my conscience was clear? Ridiculous.

It was of no consequence, thinking over such a thing was pointlessness extraordinaire.

I took an A-rank assassination mission the next day, leaving behind a couple shadow clones for my nephew's benefit. My ninja work was calming these days, I could focus on the job and forget other worries.

The target of my assassination was a missing-nin from Taki, jonin, female, liked genjutsu and taijutsu. Intriguing, not many genjutsu users had skill with taijutsu. The info was compiled unprofessionally though; clearly the one who requested the kill didn't have complete knowledge.

The client wanted to know who exactly was doing the killing, suspicious, so I showed up at the meeting location.

I smelt a trap, but I didn't act on it, my paranoia had tricked me more than once. Well, I did replace myself with a shadow clone, as for the real me, I transformed into an unassuming piece of rusty metal.

The client arrived, a surprisingly good-looking middle aged merchant. Very successful, A-ranks didn't come free.

"Ah, so you're the one?" The fellow had ruddy-brown hair, with well-tailored scruff at his chin. His hair was pulled back, but not so long as to need a ponytail.

"I am, perhaps you could enlighten me on why I was required to see you?"

"Oh that's simple, I invited your target."

A black-haired young woman entered from the other side. Her waterfall head-band had two slashes through it.

"You see, I've always fancied seeing a real ninja fight, don't disappoint."

This guy was insane; he paid hundreds just to watch an A-rank ninja fight up close. The idiot realized he might get killed, right?

"Well, mister Konoha-nin, shall we humor him?"

My clone decided to banter back, "Unless you have something more… exciting in mind." This clone had clearly been made incorrectly.

"Ho-oh? Trying to seduce your target when she's already facing you down?"

"Since the fight will be boring, I thought I'd at least try."

"You overestimate yourself, blackhead."

My clone's eyes turned red, black tomoe invading its appearance, "Do I really?" Really? My clones were getting more and more eccentric.

"Uchiha!" The genjutsu user knew exactly what the doujutsu spelled for her, and tried to run away.

My clone easily caught up, catching her and throwing her back to the slum-like area we'd all met in. It was grey, with ruined stone buildings surrounding. Greenery had grown up all around, right up to the very edge of the buildings.

"Do you see it now?"

The woman scowled, her mind working on a plan to defeat me. Ironically, if she won, all I'd lose was a clone.

She sprang forward, shuriken flying out to block the clone's dodges. It didn't matter, the dirt itself tripped the missing-nin, forcing her to flip by putting her hands down and pushing off, feet aimed to kick my clone. Not bad, she'd recovered well.

The clone didn't even bother with dodging; simply forming a small cube of blue chakra directly in the way of the ninja's feet. The chakra defense broke, but not before slowing the kick down to a pitiful level.

The clone caught the woman's feet, throwing her over his shoulder.

The nuke-nin broke her fall with her arms as best she could, but still took damage, "You can't win, little ninja."

"What do you want?"

"Well, my mission is to kill you, and Konoha hates to disappoint."

The woman didn't even bother trying a genjutsu, knowing the Sharingan would see through it. Truly it was a painful world for genjutsu users who didn't have doujutsu.

"Shall the fight go on longer, client-san?" My clone asked as the former Taki-nin rose from the ground warily.

"Oh yes, and do give her a fighting chance, it's no fun otherwise."

My clone scowled, but turned off his ultimate cheat-eye. Immediately, the jonin used a genjutsu on my clone.

My clone's vision of the jonin distorted and finally the enemy appeared to have hundreds of clones of herself. My clone pulsed it's chakra at a rapid and irregular pace, and the genjutsu dispersed, just as the woman took a kunai to its neck.

The clone was a cut a tad as he stepped back, a tiny amount, but too much for the already fragile clone. The clone popped with smoky brilliance, and the jonin glanced around fearfully, knowing she'd been had.

"What's this? How exciting," The client added his own boring commentary.

I dropped my henge, straightening my clothes. The henge was a crazy technique to be sure, a physics defying feat of chakra that had become so mundane as to be called 'E-rank'. Now do not be confused by any previous statements about the technique, but understand that transforming into an inanimate object is easy, but transforming into a moving entity takes much more skill and concentration. So much in fact, that it requires one to henge into a basic human shape, or give up on self-controlled movement.

"Congratulations, you have defeated my clone with a handicap, I believe I have yet to introduce myself, I am Uchiha Nanashi. Perhaps I am better known to you as the Flying Sand Devil," I bowed politely, "The pleasure is all mine."

The jonin swallowed her spit, quaking in her sandals without reserve, "I'm dead, aren't I?"

"Is she?" I asked my client.

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "That's what I hired you for, right?"

"It is; how do you wish to die?" I asked her.

"How is someone supposed to choose how she dies?!" She seemed ready to cry, well, people often broke down when they realized they were dead.

"Alright," I cast a genjutsu on the client, in which I broke her neck. In reality, I formed two shadow clones. One captured the jonin and took off, the other transformed into her, assuming the dead pose suggested by my genjutsu.

I stayed behind and finished up with the client, receiving his stamp of approval on my mission scroll. That's what was usually needed to redeem the payment for a mission; it was how all A-rank missions were done. First, the client paid the fee; then the village sent it's ninja out; then the 'stamp' of approval was received from the client. Finally, the ninja could get his portion of the pay.

Obviously, faking completion was a serious crime; clients also tried to go back on their missions, hoping for refunds, all the time. To put a stop to such things, special ANBU squads were formed to investigate such accusations; the side in the wrong always lost at least a limb, if not their life.

Clearly, not all missions were done this way, for cheaper missions, a good faith style was used. Either the client paid first, the usual, or the village completed the mission first, also quite common.

Naturally, lying about mission parameters to get a cheaper mission was strictly illegal, to be dealt with by the team in question, if not deceased, or solved by the Anbu.

I then found my shadow clone, still holding the jonin; he was also smirking like a loon. I'd made sure to seal up the 'dead body' and now released it, popping the still transformed clone as he came out.

"Why?" The jonin clearly had a sneaking suspicion as to why I'd let her live, but I had little doubt she was wrong.

"To be frank, you have two options, one, die, two; become a Konoha-nin, without the frankness, you have a third option, work for me."

"Work for you…?"

"Ah, I can see this is the avenue you like, simply put, I put a seal on you; this will let me track you down. Two reasons for this, one, I need to be able to find my operatives, two, if you run I can kill you."

"And what exactly will I be doing?"

"Do your normal missing-nin stuff, take jobs, make money, have fun running away from hunter-nin, that kind of thing. Additionally, you'll be watching for suspicious activities, not boring stuff like a girl getting sold to a dealer, but bigger stuff, like powerful ninja grouping together. Or if you see missing-nin getting recruited, anything that would indicate a substantial gathering of prowess."

"Ok." The chances she'd actually find something were very low, but it was good to have a bit of a spy network.

I put a seal on her, not quite what I'd told the woman though. This one also included a bit of mind-control, she liked me now, not in a romantic way mind you; she'd never betray me. At least until the seal was removed that is.

Not many knew enough about sealing to even divine the purpose of the black spot on the small of her back though. I'd compressed the seal to a level that Orochimaru-sensei would be proud of.

I smiled as I finished my work; it was always a joyous occasion when one more ninja became my personal minion. I didn't have many, but it was still satisfying.

I got back to Konoha quickly, not wanting to waste more hours than I absolutely needed. It simply wasn't smart. The chunin at the gates gave me no trouble, and I easily redeemed my payment.

After dutifully paying a percentage of my pay to the Uchiha treasury, I went home.

It seemed we had a guest, two rather, since that was the number of excess pairs of sandals outside our door.

"- cannot go on as some bachelor." Ah, an Uchiha clan elder.

"Nanashi will choose whom he pleases," I entered the room, where two gray headed Uchiha elders sat on one side of the table, with my father at the other.

"I presume this is all about my unmarried state?" I possessed intellect; those words were plenty to determine the course of the conversation.

The elder frowned at my lack of respect, but did not comment on it. I wasn't so young as to be called a brat, and power was the real divider when it came to respect. I was easily the most powerful living Uchiha, so my social status was high.

"Yes, Iwao and I were talking to Yuu-sama about the fact that you have yet to produce offspring," The other elder began, "And, to be honest, a man of your genius should certainly pass on his genes."

Bah! This body is far better than my last, but I am hardly a genius, just a man from another place.

"Forgive me elder, we are not acquainted," I first stalled before formulating a well-thought answer.

"I am Jun." The man dutifully introduced himself.

"I am aware that it is expected of me to have children, and I agree; it is not good for a man to stay single his whole life. Nonetheless, I am my own man, and while I may someday ask the honored elders to find a wife for me, it shall not be today." Diplomacy up! Heh, that wasn't bad, not to mention entirely honest.

Iwao narrowed his eyes, "You don't have forever, and while I hate to threaten, you really must choose a wife. Preferably from within the clan to insure that your progeny have the Sharingan."

"This Nanashi takes heed, if I have not selected a woman of child bearing age within two years, I submit myself to your choice." Perhaps I was giving up freedom here, but I was getting older.

"Good. Yuu-sama, Nanashi-sama, we shall leave you now." Iwao left, his friend following, after he said this.

My father looked at me carefully after they left, "I hope you realize what this means."

"I'm thirty years old, I think I understand it." Plus the 50% addition of my previous life, but that's irrelevant.

"Well, at the very least he won't pair you with an eyesore; it'll all be about the best genes."

"You act as if I have no chance of marrying before the two years are up."

"You? Please Nanashi, don't joke, I've never seen you as much as look at an attractive woman." He exaggerated to be sure, but the point was made.

I smiled thinly, "I wouldn't want to embarrass you now would I?"

"Implications and manipulations, Nanashi, I know them well, you don't fool me."

"Diligence Father, that is my code along with efficiency, and I tell you now, it is not efficient to pursue a relationship."

My aging father threw his hands up, "And that's why you're still single. Goodness, with your looks and reputation you could have almost any woman in Konoha, but you prefer to just train."

"Love is not so simple of an affair, and if it is to be a marriage without love, I'd rather make Iwao-sama happy and marry from his selections. That's my present feeling at least, if I discover a genius and single female, I may propose."

"Genes this, genes that, they are important Nanashi, but you, you'll break at this rate; crack like your own sensei." He referred to the fact that I was nearly constantly studying or training. This was a result of my sure knowledge of impending disaster, driving me to become insanely powerful.

"Orochimaru-sensei is only marginally insane, but I have no interest in defending him further." I'll admit I felt slightly offended when Father insulted my teacher.

Yuu caught on to what I'd said though, "So you still feel an attachment to him? You condone his actions?"

"While his use of children was, by the typical moral code, reprehensible, it was technically legal. Those children he used? They were not citizens, they were legal residents. Logically then, they only had the ambiguous right to 'fair treatment', they had no rights."

Yuu had memorized the law, so he could formulate no logical answer, and both of us knew that an emotional answer was pointless. In the end then, Orochimaru was only a criminal by the Hokage's decision.

"On the other hand, we were talking about my marriage, not Orochimaru."

"Yeah; do you have anyone in mind?" He sighed, but readily agreed to the change of topic.

"I may; but I need to do some research." Yuu clearly wanted to know what I was going to be researching, but I left the room before he could ask. But for you I'll tell: I was researching possible candidates who had shown exceptional intelligence.

Genius wives tended to give genius children more than mundane wives. Women aged 16-25 and single were included, civilian or ninja. Stuff like this took time, so I didn't take missions for a bit. My clones were reliable enough, but when it comes to marriage, you've got to do it yourself.

Unfortunately, unlike in game worlds, it wasn't as simple as looking for the 'genius' trait and suggesting matrimony between us to her liege. Not that simple at all. I gave up on it after a couple days, admitting that it was pointless to try this method. Far better to trust Iwao.

Since my time wasn't occupied with wife searching anymore, I decided to get a little for medical knowledge from my favorite medic, Shizune.

"Ah, Shizune, we haven't seen each other since we ate supper, how are you?" I greeted the brown-haired female.

Shizune looked up at me, tearing herself away from the patient reports on her desk, "I'm very busy, Nanashi."

"You're always extremely busy, that's why you like me; I'm your excuse to get away from work."

She smiled wryly, "Maybe."

"Where's Tsunade-sama?"

"Treating patients, as usual."

"That's good I suppose, it is a great thing for Konoha to have such profoundly skilled medic-nin such as Tsunade-sama and yourself."

"Empty words Nanashi, I'm barely better than you."

"How entirely humble of you, your skill exceeds mine own as far as the heavens are above the earth."

Shizune rubbed her forehead in distaste, "Cut the flowery stuff, please."

"Then how shall I proceed? With earthly language?"

"That'd be nice, yes."

#Pleased to meet you, I am your humble servant Nanashi.#

"What?" Shizune blinked.

"Or do you prefer elemental speech? Like this: I am Nanashi," I grinned, not in any way worried about my strange language skills being discovered, it simply was of no consequence now.

"Elemental," She stated flatly.

"So then, can you spare enough time to teach me a trick or two?"

"You leech," She looked over the papers, "Give me a minute."

I played around with my chakra as she began to finish up. I didn't even blink when the door got blown off its hinges and a certain blonde entered.

"Shizune, what did you do with my sake?"

"I sold it to a bar and gave the proceeds to charity," Shizune didn't even look up.

Tsunade finally noticed me, "The Uchiha is here? What'd'you want, brat?"

"I was actually asking Shizune for some of her time."

"Hah! Already making moves are we?" I didn't miss the slight flush on Shizune's cheeks.

I sniffed the air, unsurprised that Tsunade was mildly inebriated, "Not quite, I've been receiving instruction in the medical arts from your apprentice."

"Instruction in the medical arts…? Is that what people your age call it these days?" Tsunade asked disbelievingly. How on earth was she drunk if Shizune had taken the medicine? _Multiple stashes, _my mind supplied oh so helpfully.

I closed my eyes, willing my annoyance away, "Your attempt to irritate me has succeeded, but at the risk of sounding belligerent I'll have to ask you to stop insulting Shizune. And myself."

Tsunade looked at me, "You are an idiot, Uchiha." She said calmly. I failed to see the relevance of that statement; but drunken people aren't logical.

"Indeed." I nodded, totally in agreement.

Tsunade clearly felt like smacking her forehead, "This is why I hate clan-boys. Always acting so unperturbed."

"And yet your obvious temper hasn't won you friendship or favors." I quipped, not willing to stop without the last word.

"And you just bottle everything up like a fool, people like you explode." Tsunade also was unable to give up the last word, it seemed.

"Both of you get out!" Shizune yelled, getting up and shoving us both out of the room.

Silence reigned for a few seconds, "How interesting." I broke the silence with non-committal words.

"Interesting how? You like getting pushed around?" She looked over at me with a questioning face.

"Goodness knows if I did I'd already be in love with you."

Tsunade laughed uproariously, "You aren't so bad, Uchiha." I smiled, not showing teeth, but genuinely amused. Ah, even irritating idiots could be worthwhile sometimes.

Eventually, Shizune got done and spent a few minutes teaching me some medical stuff, after confirming I knew what she had said last time. I didn't forget anything, so it was of no trouble.

Once we were done, I took off once more, visiting Kushina.

I knocked on her door, smiling as her face poked out, "Kushina-san, I thought I'd pay you a visit."

"No business?"

"Not planned, but if that's what you want I can certainly cook up something."

"Come in, Nanashi-san." She succinctly ignored the last part of my sentence.

Little Naruto came over as I walked in, "Who's he?" He asked his mom.

I wasn't so nosy as to correct his manners, merely watching for Kushina's response.

"This is Uchiha Nanashi, a friend." Of your father, but no one spoke of Minato.

"I certainly have heard of you, Naruto," I stuck my hand out, "The pleasure is all mine." It was really the first time I'd properly been introduced to Naruto himself.

"I Naruto!" The blond kid yelled. I winced at the grammar; Sasuke wasn't this bad, thank goodness.

"Greet him properly, Naruto." His mother chided.

"Don' wanna!" I hardly think I'm so suspicious, but that's your own choice, little boy.

"Na-ru-to," Kushina warned lowly.

Naruto scrunched his nose distastefully, shaking my hand rapidly and then retreating.

"You, Naruto, do not like me, why?" I asked plainly, I wanted to know, could he explain it?

"You're creepy." He stated firmly. Strange, he should have liked me since I was around him when he was a baby.

"You are the first to say as much," I turned to Kushina, "How is it going?"

"I had plenty of money saved when I retired," When Minato died, "So yes, everything is alright."

"I won't lie and say I worry about you all the time, but I wonder." I glanced down at the pouting Naruto, such a brat.

"You think he needs a father." She half-asked lowly, so that the boy wouldn't hear.

"It's certainly been proven that it helps, but I have no suggestions." Beyond myself, but I was not interested in marrying Kushina, to old and too heart-broken, "I won't venture to far into dangerous territory, but I doubt you're over him."

"This is why I hate it when you come over."

"It's also why you like it, admit it." Good memories and bad; both mingled together for Kushina in one blinding medley.

"Shall I make tea?"

"I'd like that."

Kushina made us tea, and Naruto sat on her lap as we sat at the table and talked. We talked about food prices and pointless stuff for a bit until I finished my tea. I thanked Kushina, and bid her and the still-wary Naruto goodbye.

I just couldn't stay around without a good reason; my efficiency-oriented self really could kill relationships. In this case, it wasn't a big problem.

I returned home to eat my dinner, pleased that Fugaku and his whole family had come. It was always good when they came, twice as lively and four times as fun. Luckily, they came often; for obvious reasons.

"Itachi; how is your genin life?" I asked said dark-haired boy.

"Almost over."

Ah yes, chunin exams coming soon, fun, "Confident you are then."

"I am." So wordy, my nephew, truly, my ears are tired from how many words you speak a minute.

"Anbu will probably try to recruit you, and while the decision is yours, I'd rather you stayed as a chunin until you get promoted to jonin. I have money now, so I can easily afford to take you under my wing. You'll learn most of my techniques." It was an attractive prospect for any aspiring ninja; I knew many techniques of great practical use.

"You would make me your apprentice."

"That's right, will you accept?"

"I will." Itachi was a genius; I doubted not he had weighed the pros and cons, all of them, in those few seconds.

"Excellent, I look forward to it."

Itachi nodded silently, returning to his meal. Well, that was settled for once and for all, Itachi would be my apprentice until such a time as I took a different genin team, or Naruto's team. Or of course, if he wanted out or chose to end it, as I had done, when he reached jonin.

"Sasuke, how goes the ever dreadful quest of learning to read?" Like almost all clan children, Sasuke was started early on the important things. In this case, 'reading' also included writing.

"Fine," Sasuke replied slightly sullenly, the boy was a bit more physical than mental. But that was quite alright, it was nothing diligence wouldn't correct. Of course, Sasuke was but four years old so expecting him to be mentally advanced was a bit unreasonable.

"Fugaku-nii, how are you holding up?" I didn't always ask after his health, Fugaku was still a proud Uchiha, but I did regularly do so. He was my brother, and I did feel concern.

"I'm quite alright, brother." Fugaku clearly struggled with his disability sometimes, but did his best. And a most impressive best it was, while he was perpetually pale, and coughed sometimes, he could best at least a chunin if he used his sand.

Not very surprising really, while Fugaku didn't have a Jinchuuriki's reserve, Gaara had bested jonin standing still. Of course, this time around there'd be no Gaara; no remorse felt, thank you very much.

And while it did raise the rather interesting point of 'just who currently held the Ichibi?', I wasn't too concerned. After-all, who needed to fear the one-tails? Not I; even the Kyuubi was not feared by yours truly.

Ah ah! Arrogance was budding there, a conceit bred by constant victories and never ending superiority. Dangerous stuff, let's remember, even the strongest creature can be sealed away forever.

Indeed, if there was one thing to be feared, it was seals. They could drain the life, light fires, evaporate water, turn paper stronger than steel, even seal away any being forever. The death-god seal was a cheat, a final hack to defeat even the invincible. True power could not be achieved until knowledge of the seal was wiped off the continent forever.

Now there was an interesting idea, but I'd leave it around in case I needed Orochimaru dealt with.

More pressingly, I needed to deal with Madara. Sensei hadn't told me of the Akatsuki yet, so it didn't exist. Other leads to finding Mask were not many, indeed, they were non-existent.

"That's good then." I broke off from that topic, "Now then, gathered family, trusted relatives, I shall be accepting recommendations on who I should marry." I informed the group as a whole of my intention to marry.

Itachi raised an eyebrow, undoubtedly thinking through all the suitable females he knew. Sasuke didn't even know what to think, Mikoto was smiling, Father, like Fugaku, didn't even twitch, and my Mother looked surprised.

"And no Mikoto, I most certainly am not marrying Kushina-san." Better to put that to rest right away.

"And here I was looking forward to 'recommending' her," She mock-pouted.

"Then you shall be looking a long distance indeed." I replied blandly.

"Nanashi has entered into an agreement with Iwao-san, if he is not married within two years, Iwao-san will select a wife for Nanashi." Father spilled the beans unrepentantly. If I wasn't as controlled as I was, I might have glared at the fellow; in this case, I merely nodded.

"That old man?" Fugaku asked, "It seems even Nanashi can be a fool, he'll never let you back out."

"And I shan't back out, or even try to. It was my decision." I really did value my autonomy more than most other things.

"I'm sure you'll find someone nice." My mother encouraged with a smile. That put an end to whatever banter may have followed, and we ate the rest of our meal in relative silence.

**XXX**

**Authors Note: I apologize for the late update, and apologize again. Why you ask? Quite simple, I'll be off on vacation, and since you don't know where I live, you can't rob my house with that information. **

**I do hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope even more that you want to see the next one more than I do, or at least as much. **

**On the note of favorites, As a Ninja has passed 220, unbelievably, so thank you for that.**

**If you have questions, or even suggestions, PM or review freely, just bear in mind that just because I don't follow your advice doesn't mean I hate you.**

**As always, your sincerest author, Iamwhononofyouare.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I believe in reincarnation.**

**Chapter 26**

The next morning, I was up and about, training my physique without remorse, as I had done for thirty years. I wasn't a muscled beast, that was stupid and looked terrible, but I wasn't a mere twig like Kakashi.

Since the culture was Asian in nature, muscles and body-building wasn't as important to them as excellent martial arts. A fact I agreed with, but I liked to have the best of both worlds.

After my early-morning training, I ate a quick meal before picking up Sasuke. I wasn't about to let the kid fall behind, nor was I ready to let vultures like Danzo and Orochimaru harm my family.

Yes indeed, my relationship with Orochimaru was curious, he was my sensei, but he was also a man I knew would have no qualms with stealing an Uchiha. And killing said Uchiha. Well, possessing him, but that would kill the host.

Sasuke wasn't ready to blow fireballs around yet, but he was good at ninja stuff, and that obviously included chakra. So while I didn't use hand-seals nowadays, I did teach them to Sasuke. They were tough little suckers, and if you learned them young they were far, far, easier.

I ended the session with a spar between Sasuke and a suitable puppet, since no human sparring partner was available. Besides me, but that wasn't even worth mentioning.

Ninja wounds healed much faster than their civilian equals, a ninja could break a bone and be ok, even without medical assistance, in half the time of a civilian. That, of course, was because of chakra, it boosted bodily functions even without the user commanding it to do so.

Thus, ninja, if they were not killed, generally lived much longer than a standard civilian.

Now one might wonder why I was mentioning all this, the reason was simple, in a spar, kids get hurt. Sasuke was no exception to the rule, and it was very hard for him, since the puppet was wooden, so punching it hurt quite a lot.

Thus, he often got bruises or even more serious wounds, resulting in his universal dislike of sparring. Well, I already threw canon away, nothing to be concerned about.

I had no doubt that Sasuke was more proficient for his age than his more known counterpart, after the Third War, even clans had stopped training their children so early. Of course, true traditionalists like the Hyuuga would never be shaken. Be that as it may, the Uchiha had to a large degree put off training toddlers and now began only after the age of four.

I wasn't of such an opinion, emotional development was important and such, but in a world of equality, kids couldn't afford to be weaker than adults.

And yes, that's what equality was here, everyone had equal right to be killed, no mercy for children, and certainly not women. There was no chivalry in ninja work, no code of honor beyond that of the mission. Such things were foolishness, and foolishness was death.

Only the very strong survived for any length of time, it was simply impossible to get lucky forever.

As for me, I was strong, not nearly invincible, but undoubtedly strong. Strength was very relative however, and not nearly universal. I was _not _strong in the area of finding a wife, no sir.

If I couldn't find a satisfactory woman outside it truly would be good to marry within the clan. Having a son with a chakra signature virtually identical to my own would be easier that way. As to why I wanted such a thing, I make no comment.

Marriage was a great thing, if possibly inconvenient. Children were a joyful pain that never repaid to their parents what their parents gave to them, hopefully. It would be a sad day when a punk kid gave his parents something more valuable than sheer existence.

Of course, letting that corrupt your view of children to 'they can never repay me, but I can make them try' was stupid in the extreme. But there, I was a shinobi, not a parenting counselor.

XXXX

Four months after the evening my family as a whole became aware of my intention to marry; I was once again going out for the evening with Shizune. She was more altruistic and foolish than I, having a temper that showed while my own was forgotten. Nevertheless, I liked her, I liked the fact that she taught me something useful, I liked the fact she got the job done, and I liked that fact that she was indefatigable.

This was our second 'date', our first dinner not being included in the count.

I picked up Shizune at the appointed hour, with great precision. We went to a nice family restaurant and ordered our respective meals.

Shizune got some sort of fish thing, but while this body didn't mind fish, my mind was still hesitant about the creatures' flesh, so I got steak.

"So, hospital work wearing you into the ground?" I made what talk I was not too awkward to pursue.

"Very nearly, I love the patients, and Tsunade-sama certainly needs the help, but it's not easy."

"No, I suppose it is not. As for me, I have never ventured far into the area of paperwork, writing a mission report or checking over a subordinate's papers occasionally is the closest I've come."

"Envy you I do." She quipped in her very own humorless-but-only-for-humor voice.

"So, Shizune, what do you plan to do with your future, any change of heart?"

"No. I'll be working at the hospital until I die most likely."

I nodded, "It seems likely, it's taxing work, but you've impressed me, I believe you can handle it."

"It's nice to have someone believe in you."

"Make no mistake; I believe in your capability, I make no guarantee about _you_."

"It's nice to know some people don't change."

"So you like me as I am. I am pleased." I innocently ate a bite.

Shizune quickly pushed down her blush, so she was interested in me, good, "Who ever said I liked you?" She managed.

"You said it was nice that I am unchanging, implying there is no need for me to change, thus, I must be likeable as I am."

She fell back to eating, and we talked no more of liking one another for the evening.

The fact that Shizune liked me, in a most likely romantic sense, was, in its own way, rather eye-opening. I'd been pursuing a relationship with her, largely unaware, but I wasn't sure that was what I wanted.

I didn't want Shizune to have to live with me; I certainly was gray at the best estimate. My morals were as ambiguous as the wind, my code of honor nonexistent, my body count as high as the sky.

More importantly, I had plans for the future, vague though they were, that would make her shudder. I planned, for better or for worse, to become as immortal as a human could hope to be, and to fight the world's most dangerous man, and kill him.

Konoha had already become a restraint, and I had begun to feel the fetters of established order. Indeed, I was by the day sympathizing with Orochimaru more and more, and I knew my peaceful life here at the Clan would end soon.

I hated to betray, in any way, my family, my mother and father meant much to me, and Fugaku more. I would hate to leave my family, letting them think I cared so little for them, but there was no other way. Short of involving Konoha, in some manner or other, in the war with Madara, I could not fight him from here. It would be far better to sell my services to my devilish sensei and make use of what small assistance I could garner from him.

I was conflicted; my selfish desire to become more than a mortal, for there was no real life after death in this world, and my fear fought one another. I feared what my family would think if I left, I well and truly did.

In the end though, the root cause of the other argument was also fear, everything a human does can be boiled down and fear will be one of the stages in almost every single case. I feared dying, I feared letting Madara enact his plan.

I feared starving, thus I ate. I feared someone stronger than me, so I tried my best to become the strongest. I feared getting married, so I was single. I feared losing my fear, for that would make me a mere beast. I feared being uncomfortable in the morning, so I slept on a good bed. I feared any number of things, and so the simple fact is 99% of what people do is because of fear, of one sort or another.

I do not say 100%, for I fear being wrong.

To be honest, I feared being married, with its many consequences, more than leaving the village. That being said, the logical conclusion was to leave. Preparations had to be made, a large stock of food and money would be required. I'd need to leave behind some instructions for Sasuke. I couldn't leave the boy simply hanging.

Unfortunately, if I did leave the village, not only would Sasuke be stunted, the Uchiha clan's reputation would take a massive hit. I was a hero in Konoha, and I hadn't tarnished my reputation or that of the Clan. However, if I left, many would hate me, calling me a betrayer of the worst kind.

I had at least a year to prepare, enough time to be comfortable, and go unnoticed.

My lessons with Shizune would be dropped, for while she was unmistakably superior to me in medical knowledge and execution, I knew all I needed. Hopefully she wouldn't be to hurt by it, but it was of no concern.

But there! That was my main concern right there. Indeed, Itachi approached.

"Greetings, teacher," Itachi acknowledged me officially.

I'd rather get married then leave without my true genius of a student, I could tear myself from Sasuke, and leave Naruto's fate to chance, but Itachi was special. He was _my _apprentice, and I'd come to love the boy something like how a father would. That certainly laid to rest the idea of leaving, if only for a time.

"So Itachi, did you find what you needed?"

"Yes."

"Good, do write a short essay about it before the day after tomorrow."

He nodded in assent, not finding reason to argue with my methods. I'd sent the boy out to spy on several different, and very assorted, people, now he was back and I required the info. Basic spy work, but useful nonetheless.

Itachi already had the three-tomoe, so I figured it was about time we began on my seal-less style of ninjutsu. This really meant he needed incredible chakra control. My own had always been bolstered, once I got the basics down, by my over-aged brain.

Itachi had low chakra reserves and great mental acuity, there was no question control would be simple for him. Thus, while the scale of his sand manipulation would not be great, I expected it to be equally diverse and proficient as my own.

"Your chakra is yours, look at this sand, think about how its chakra looks and feels, make your chakra change to be the same."

Itachi activated his Sharingan, gazing at the sand intently. Great concentration was evident as he brought some of his chakra out, trying to change it to be the same as the sand.

I looked between him and the sand, it was incredible. Itachi was already where it had taken me a year to reach. It reinforced how truly fragile my superiority was.

"Excellent! Keep at this every day, it won't be instantaneous."

"I shall."

"How's your sensing ability?"

"Tolerable."

"It is of no concern, I rarely use mine, nor do I have much talent in the field, I suspect it's related to the way I over-produce chakra."

"Some days I envy you Uncle, my own chakra reserves are very limited."

"True, more chakra is generally better, but I have faith you can get past such a small defect." I pause came about as Itachi looked up at me expectantly, "Acrobatics." I decided swiftly.

What followed was a tradition passed down for generations, roof-jumping. Many had done it before, and many would do it again, for good reason. It was healthy, and kept a sense of agility and confidence about a ninja.

Our day finished with a spar between the two of us, I, obviously, went easy on the boy, but he did well.

X

The following day we took a nice B-rank mission, a simple escort mission for a fairly rich man who'd received an anonymous letter to watch his back. It was a week-long affair, so I'd left plenty of clones for Sasuke.

On the third day an infiltrator approached, gentle in mannerism, far too polite, and dressed quite fashionably. Yes, I spoke of a female assassin. Her gait indicated a former career as a dancer, so how she got to doing this kind of work I knew not.

I looked closer, yes; she had no chakra at all, just an athletic body, far too amateurish and self-confident for a real assassin. She was, no doubt, a girl the client had somehow wronged, and now she wished him dead. Why do I say too self-confident? Any real assassin would tuck its tail between its legs and get out after it saw ninja.

Clearly she attributed the strength of ninja to propaganda and overblown rumors.

Well, there was no danger, and watching how Itachi dealt with it would be enlightening.

The client seemed in no way suspicious, perfectly happy to have an attractive young woman in his small party. We stopped in the early evening at a small inn that lived off of travelers like us, and I generously provided a room for the dancer, Yukari, as she called herself.

Itachi and I roomed together, while the client took a room to himself, warning us to stay alert in a very official way.

At one-o'clock, a decent time for such things I supposed, and luckily during Itachi's watch, Yukari got up, making a frightful quantity of noise.

I got up swiftly and silently, perching myself on the rafters just as Itachi appeared.

"Yukari-san? Why are you up at this hour?" He asked, quirking his head harmlessly to the side.

Yukari's heartrate rose to the heavens as the tension in her body was suddenly activated, the knife behind her back quivering, but she held on bravely, "And why are you Itachi-kun? You startled me."

"Ninja work." He replied in a monotone, as if the whole world understood that an eleven-year old did such things regularly.

"Oh, well, I need to get to the bathroom." She began walking in the direction of the client's room.

"The bathroom is this way, Yukari-san." He appeared before her, pointing in the direction opposite to which she walked.

"Silly me, thanks," She walked off to the restroom, calming her nerves inside for a good 5 minutes.

It was not an unexpected performance from either of the two. Itachi did not like spilling blood without good reason, and Yukari, while an amateur at assassination, had impressed me already. Most noobs were far worse than she.

Nevertheless, conflict was inevitable, the dancer was determined that our client should die, and there was no way my nephew would allow that. Thus, I watched on, not focusing so much on these two that I missed others. Though to be honest, it turned out there were no other happenings to miss.

Yukari, most likely an alias, came out of the restroom, heading once more to the client's room. In the intense darkness, she did not notice Itachi come up behind her. Rather than immediately terminating her, he let her go so far as the client's door, to ensure he did not misread the situation. A good, safe, response.

As soon as she placed her hand to the knob, Itachi brought up his kunai, and brought it down on her head.

Blood… did not flow at all; he'd used the base, simply knocking her out. She wouldn't be out for a week or anything convenient like that though. She'd have a bump and a few dead brain cells, but really would end up no worse for wear.

An acceptable, though by no means unexpected, solution, although I did wonder if he'd thought it through.

**XXX**

"Leaving without me?" Yes, that was exactly what I meant by thought it through. Yukari didn't stay out for a week or anywhere near it.

"Of course not Yukari-chan, these ninja somehow got the idea you were staying, but I knew better." He smiled ever so nicely, and Yukari suppressed a grimace of disgust. Her opinion of him was obviously deeply rooted.

We finished loading up the horses with the civilian's belongings, our own secure in scrolls. The client then mounted the less-laden of the two, riding onward atop his mare.

Yukari fell back, to plot if I was not mistaken, and I joined her shortly after.

"So, what is your alleged grievance?"

She swallowed before answering, "What do you mean?"

"The only one who doesn't know you want him dead is the man himself."

"I see, why aren't I dead yet then?"

"Ah, so you can understand my student letting you live due to his age, but you cannot understand why I stand next to you without animosity."

"Something like that."

"You see, Yukari-chan, though that is not your name, I left this decision to him. Besides, you're hardly any threat, and our mission is to protect our client for the duration of the mission, not kill anyone who would kill him."

"For the duration of the mission…" She was fairly smart after-all, "You're cold, ninja."

"Perhaps, but then again, I can make anyone cold." I splashed some of my water into the air, where it nigh-instantly turned to ice.

"No trick." The ice floated down to the young dancer, into her wondering palms.

"It's cold!" A pause followed as she gazed at the ice, "How did you do that?"

"If I told just anyone, I'd be in trouble, so I'll just tell you this: any ninja can do that with practice."

She turned that over in her mind, "But you're the only one who does?"

I chuckled a little at that, "You are refreshingly smart aren't you? I'm glad Itachi didn't end you, but trust me, once you start killing in anything but self-defense, you can't stop. Ever."

The conversation died out for a bit, until Yukari noticed I hadn't really answered her question, "So are you the only one?"

"No, there are others, one's who achieved it not through practice, but by blood. They are the once-proud Yuki clan, and I should not be surprised if less than a score of them remain now. They live in hiding and in fear, hunted to poverty and exile, pursued to extinction. Indeed, the hate of bloodlines is strong in Kiri." Haku was somewhere out there, soon to be picked up by Zabuza, and fated to die young.

"What's a bloodline?" Ever knowledge seeking, Yukari prodded me once more.

"It's a special ability, passed down from generation to generation, I have one as well." I turned on my Sharingan, looking into the eyes of the girl.

"That's… different," She offered diplomatically, "What's it do, other than creep people out?"

"It is by no means the creepiest of doujutsu, that is, bloodlines that grant a special eye. It grants supernatural vision, I can see the all-pervading energy known as chakra if I wish, and it gives photographic memory. I remember everything I see with it on."

"That sounds convenient, but not." She reasoned out loud.

"Why is a girl as smart as you trying to ruin her life by killing a man?"

"He killed my brother."

"Your brother was going to die; mortality is such, why ruin more lives in the never-ending foolishness of revenge when you are clearly doing alright for yourself?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"I would understand. I took revenge once; I killed a man called Rasa, largely because I thought he'd killed my brother. But my brother was still alive, though permanently injured."

"My brother's dead!" She screamed in frustration, her overactive brain fining no point or lesson in my story.

"I do not regret killing that man, and I never will, because I kill for a living. I've killed hundreds, and I'll kill hundreds more before I leave this Continent, bringing misery to more hundreds. Breeding their hearts to hate me for what I did. But I won't regret it; because I have a reason, killing them brings my family food and keeps them safe, but what reason do you have?"

She had no reply.

"You have none! You would kill, simply for the sake of killing, for no other reason than to see your victim dead. You are not a brute beast; you are something far more evil. Right about now you're thinking about everything I just said, ready to point out I did the same thing. But while in my heart I did, on the outside, I got paid for it."

"So getting paid to kill people makes it all okay!?"

I stopped in my tracks, looking down at my tainted hands. A large portion of those people didn't need to die, my armor and puppets didn't have to be made, that was extra stuff I didn't need. Extra money I didn't have, extra people I had to kill to get it.

I didn't have to kill people. I could have chosen life as a doctor. While not supportive; my family would have allowed it. I didn't even have to continue in this world which I didn't belong in, I could have just ended it as soon as I realized I was an Uchiha.

The group had stopped, so I dumbly walked forward at their pace, weakly assuring Itachi I was fine, but ordering that he should keep an eye out.

I had thought I was over this whole debacle, but my battered conscience, while suppressed and nigh-eliminated, was back with a vengeance: a true and final last gasp.

If I rejected it here, I would lose it forever, I would most likely go mad slowly, ever so slowly, like my sensei. We really were two peas in a pod. But to listen and accept, to go so far as to revive my conscience, would be death.

Not death in the literal sense, but I'd lived twenty years as a killer, and I had to admit it: I knew no other way of life now. I could not just pack up and go, but I could not stay as I was.

I'd reached my breaking point, hadn't I? To try to atone for my many sins and live without killing, or to go on, and soon lose myself to my lifestyle. I could not accept either option, it was too horrible.

The only option was to forge a third choice with my own will, to lose myself to myself, thus preserving my sanity, at least to an extent, but preventing me from truly feeling emotions for others. I'd be a selfish, greedy, and utterly ruthless me, not so far off from what I was now.

I was convinced of it. There was only one option now, to go on and become as immortal as I could, to live on in the world until someone came along who could end me.

…

For what?

That made no sense, I had no duty to stick around; I could simply teach Itachi a few things and end my own life. Heck, I didn't even have to teach him, mere curiosity was the only reason to not commit suicide and bug-out.

Bah, it was as good a reason as any; I had nothing else to do these days.

XXXX

The mission ended successfully and we returned home, whether or not 'Yukari' killed the client I do not know or care.

Both Itachi and Sasuke continued progressing until Sasuke was six, at which point he was entered into the academy, and taken out of my hands for a little while.

My clones spied on Naruto regularly, and unfortunately the Anbu discovered them a couple times, but could not identify whose clones they were. I could tell that Sakumo was troubled by it, but I honestly didn't care about him or his petty troubles.

Two months after Sasuke entered the academy I judged Itachi to have completed the sand manipulation training. He was now a certified sand-wielder, one of a growing breed of powerful Uchiha.

I was well satisfied, and continued in teaching Itachi useful things, every trick I knew I passed on. Of course, I couldn't do that all at once, that's why apprenticeships existed.

From sand, we moved to wind, fire being taken care of long ago. Wind was undeniably incredibly useful, though it was assuredly hard to learn without an affinity. Still, I was curious to see how Itachi would do and how long it would take him to master the element.

XXXX

"Hah!" One of Itachi's clones yelled as it assaulted me, foolishly revealing its obvious status as a non-human. The mere chakra construct was immediately popped by a needle of air, piercing through its heart.

Two more of my student appeared, one coming down with a kick from above and the other preparing a jutsu. A stream of fire emerged from Itachi's mouth, doing nothing beyond burning his clone through, resulting in its untimely demise.

The final clone popped out of the ground, grabbing my heel.

I smiled, "You managed to catch me."

He nodded, coming over.

"You're doing quite well nephew."

"Thank you."

"Someday we will separate, do not be surprised if it happens whenever."

"You wish to imply something."

"As you may have noticed, I'm not an emotional person, reserving such displays for my family. But have you noticed it? I have. My emotions are less present now."

"Meaning?"

"You possess a good degree of discretion, so I'll rest it in your judgement, for better or worse. When my emotions fade far enough, I possess a high chance of leaving the village. I'd become some sort of threat in that case." I explained, though rather misleadingly, my situation.

"Why tell me?"

"You are my student." I paused, forming a little figurine of dirt in my hand with chakra control before I spoke up, "What do you think is more interesting, staying around and seeing how people I know turn out, or going off into the world and meddling?"

He looked up at me questioningly, "I mean meddling with the future." I explained.

"The future is not known, meddling won't bring any amusement. Staying and watching is more interesting, since you learn more."

"Logically, you're right, unfortunately, the future is known, on some level." I felt like skipping a rock, but we weren't near water.

"How?" Why, what, are you even human? All expected reactions from a human being.

"I was curious as to how you would react, rather boring all considered."

He frowned subtly, "You have no reason to tell me this, and I have no reason to believe you."

As expected from my over-mature student, he thought of himself as a separate entity. Much like I had done for quite a while; noted.

"True enough, and while it was ridiculous to even tell you this, I did. What you believe is not my decision, nor is it a great concern of mine in this matter."

"I see." He fell into thought. While Itachi was undeniably loyal to Konoha, he was no Anbu captain, he was primarily my student, and his secondary status was as a chunin. Therefore, I was not really worried he would reveal anything to the Hokage. No one had spied on us; I'd made sure of that.

There really was no point in letting him know, or even asking what he thought was more interesting. I was simply sick of hiding it from everyone.

We returned home for the day, Itachi even less talkative than his normal self, much to Sasuke's chagrin.

On a side note, my marriage date was very near; I had no doubt that Iwao had already made his choice, and I had none of my own. I'd stopped seeing Shizune altogether months ago, and I didn't know any other eligible females.

And thus my boring existence continued unabated.

XXXX

I was tweaking my puppets when the grand letter arrived, hailing from the legendary Yakushi Kabuto. Or rather it had arrived from his master, Orochimaru. To be clear, Kabuto hadn't exactly signed his name on it, it was merely a very educated guess.

Akatsuki was beginning the recruitment process with him. Apparently Sasori was the recruiter, useful information altogether. Sensei didn't know where Akatsuki resided as of yet, but had sent me the news anyway.

I had calculated the chance of his actually doing so to be quite low, so I was well pleased. In addition, it assured me that Orochimaru felt zero loyalty to Akatsuki.

I wrote word back that he should join, and that I myself would appear on the grand scheme in due time. I filled the rest of my letter with trivialities that contained hints to potentially useful information, as a sign of our mutual relationship.

I followed the directions that were given to send the letter back, not at all surprised that a certain glasses wearing genin picked it up. What channels he used to forward it to Orochimaru were none of my concern.

I got back to my puppets the day after, mention of Sasori sparking a renewed interest in the art. And to call puppetry a fine art was by no means overstating it; I would go as to say it was the third most artful thing.

The first was life, life was an art that humanity did not yet comprehend, nor was it exceedingly likely to ever achieve such knowledge.

The second was chakra manipulation, and really just chakra itself. The stuff was incredibly complex, and yet impossibly simple, diverse to an extreme, yet strangely all the same. Yes, chakra was an art.

And as I just mentioned, the third was puppetry, higher than buildings, figurines, paintings, and statues, even motion picture was eclipsed by it once one had an appreciation for it. One could not devote months to puppetry and deny that there was something to it. That feeling of satisfaction when a puppet did everything one intended, that victorious smile that came when the beauty of one's puppet exceeded that of what it mimicked.

There were many arts, but I could with confidence say these were the top three.

Of course, there were plenty of good contenders, and many would disagree with me, but whatever.

After a while longer working solo on my puppets, I got up and left, leaving behind half a dozen shadow clones to make new ones and finish the work. The sand I kept in my sandals activated and I flew up into the air, enjoying the wind.

I surveyed the town from my lofty height, memorizing any interesting changes that might have occurred.

Nothing of special note had occurred, which was good. Change affected everyone, and I was just fine as I was.

I exercised until dinner time, at which point I washed up and joined the group. To my surprise, a certain pink-haired person was already at the table. Of course, her hood was still on, so the pinkness of her dyed hair was not revealed.

"Uchiha," She took the time and effort to acknowledge only me.

"Miyuki, forgive my rudeness, but who invited you?" I asked, careful to sound curious and not accusing.

"I did." She replied flatly, "I heard it from the mill of rumors that you would be getting married soon."

"And this concerns you how?"

"I suppose I have no reason beyond coming to congratulate you."

"That's not like you, what's the real reason?"

"It has been a while since I've seen you, and I thought it'd be a good excuse." She offered quietly.

"Truth or not, I shall pester you no further, I owe you that much." Whatever she was really here for, I knew she wasn't stupid enough to try and fight me. Sarcastic personality or not, she was not an idiot.

Dinner passed in relative silence, Sasuke, the normal noise maker, cowed by the presence of a stranger. It was good; the boy had the discipline to recognize that an unknowing child should stay silent in front of company.

I slept well enough, getting up at my usual early hour; I honed my body for forty minutes and then picked up my apprentice.

Itachi was prepared, but that was not unexpected, he always was up and ready by the time I came around. We practiced jumping for ten minutes before moving onto the next thing, iryojutsu.

Indeed, it was time for Itachi to truly learn of the first art, Life, more specifically, the preservation of it.

**Authors Note: So, Nanashi had the chance to, though he didn't rationalize it that way, either open up or close himself off, and we see he, predictably, basically chose to close off.**

**Tsk, tsk, how did I ever end up this way?**

**Thanks for waiting for this super-late update, not that you had any other options, seriously, I could have gotten this out weeks ago if I put my mind to it. But, contrary to my fan-fic self, I am very lazy, sorry guys.**

**Love, hate, disappointed, rage-quit, bored-quit, or whatever, let me know in your reviews.**

**Sincerely, Iamwhononofyouare**


	27. Chapter 27, All Men Die

**Disclaimer: Why am I even disclaiming at this point? Tradition? Yes, I say to you, tradition. And so I shall declare it, I do not own Naruto.**

**Chapter 27**

Itachi was no slouch at whatever he put his mind to, and the Mystical Palm was no different, he had the technique down fast. However, his becoming a natural with it was still a ways off.

Chakra healing was merely a method of inserting extra chakra to the patient's wound to stimulate cell activity, and thus, feeding on the energy of chakra, the wound would heal. However, the chakra needed to be correct in shape and form; one could say that healing and my sand manipulation were very similar.

Anyway, Itachi continued to practice with it as we accepted missions and went about our rather uneventful lives.

Not long after, I began to notice something amiss; the incredibly reticent Miyuki was seen twice with my own two eyes, outside the confines of her own little home. It was strange, foreboding even. I puzzled over the matter greatly, and, as I am now ashamed to say, I did not see the reason for it.

But before we delve deeper into that day's events, we should first expose the surrounding situation.

Itachi and I had accepted a C-rank, rather low for us, the mission was perfectly normal; there were no incidents during it. However, it became a special memory once we returned.

XX

I waved off Itachi, heading to my own room. I was surprised on arriving to find that both my mother and father were out, but I didn't mind. Rather than dwelling on such a boring topic, I made my way to my room, and I was halfway through undressing when an Uchiha came barging in.

Fortunately for the both of us he was quite male, unfortunately, he brought terrible news.

"Come quickly! Fugaku-sama is dying." He ran off as my eyes widened.

I hastily redressed myself, zipping over to my brother's place in record time. I found the entire family in his room, the Uchiha clan's doctor present, with a certain hooded female in the corner.

Fugaku was pale, so very pale, "Nanashi, you came." He smiled weakly.

"You fool, you hid this from me?" One didn't become critical on a whim, his wound clearly had farther reaching effects than he'd let on.

"If it makes you feel better, Sasuke didn't know." He couldn't even chuckle at his own joke, not having the strength.

"You didn't want me to waste time looking for a cure? I gladly would have, I'm a cold, hard, man, Fugaku, but you are my brother." I saw through his false mercy, the idiot was behaving like some fool in a chinese drama.

After his coughing subsided, he spoke once more, "I think I was within my rights." He defended.

I frowned severely, "Agreed. There was no legal requirement to reveal your condition to me." I wasn't such a fool as to deny this, though I still didn't like it.

"Good to see you aren't a hypocrite." He stared at the ceiling.

"Yes." I sighed heavily, "Forgive this Nanashi, but I'm asking everyone to leave for a short time."

The doctor looked at me, "Not possible, Fugaku-sama might expire if he were left without medical care." It seemed he was a doctor who liked to run the show.

Well, this was not his show. I showed my certification level as a medic, "Sufficient medical care?" I asked, an undertone of annoyance in my tone, this whole situation had me frustrated.

"Yes, but why must everyone go?" He asked the question all present had on their minds.

"There are some things I refuse to tell the rest of you."

The doctor finally understood, often relatives wished to be alone with the dying patient for this very reason, to tell them the secrets they never could. Indeed, sometimes it was the patients who asked for this time.

"If he's stable enough you'll all get a turn, let's leave them." The doctor took charge, exiting with the rest of my family, and the cloaked interloper.

I held my face blank as I watched them go, finally turning to Fugaku as Mikoto closed the door behind her.

"So, little brother, what are you going to say?" Fugaku broke the silence cheerfully enough.

I paused for a couple seconds, finding the words, "I'm sure you've wondered over my knowledge, and my generally peculiar behavior, particularly when young." I looked at him. "The truth is, my IQ is only slightly above average, it hasn't even been extraordinary for my age, ever." Well, I didn't really know that, since I hadn't been tested.

"That's-" I cut him off with the wave of my hand and a face.

"This body may only be 31, but my mind is 15 years more aged. In my first life, this world was nothing but a fantasy for children…"

I laid out for him what few facts about _Naruto _I knew, certainly not an exhaustive compilation of the whole thing, but enough for him to get the idea. I revealed my knowledge on Danzo, though all of it was somewhat unreliable, being based largely on fanfictions. More importantly, I gave him the whole run-down on the eye of the moon plan, not forgetting to tell him about Obito.

"If you don't believe me, that's fine; but I would ask you, what should I do?" I hadn't really admitted it, but I despaired of ever besting Mask and Madara, I distracted myself from it with projects and other issues, but I truly felt a duty to save the world from such a fate.

I suppose I really wasn't much different from a naïve shounen hero after-all.

Fugaku's hand trembled and I hastened to feed him medicine and correct his position, at length, he was ready to speak, "It's an unbelievable tale Nanashi, but it's irrelevant, it's a future that might have been if you didn't exist, but you do, and don't ever forget it." Here he stopped, looking me in the eye.

"And so I'll tell you what you should do; you should kill me."

"Fool, the Mangekyou will not solve Madara, or any other thing."

"I am merely a dead man breathing for a few more days, better to get some use out of me."

"The Mangekyou only activates because of an emotional response, that response causes other problems."

"Well, I suppose I was dodging the question." He gathered himself, "You feel a duty to protect the world from this eternal genjutsu, but you have no desire to do it. Find a desire, something you want, something you want to do, want to pursue."

"I…" I tried to formulate a reply, but I couldn't find one, I had no strong desire for anything. That's what I was, apathetic; I simply didn't care much about anything.

But what could I care for? I truly had no idea.

I could not honestly believe I could find something I desired to protect; the only thing I could think of was my own freedom of decision. In this world I valued that most, the freedom to choose freely what I would do, accepting the consequences of those choices.

Nonetheless, protecting my freedom of decision was hardly enough motivation. I simply didn't have anything else though.

I knew that if Itachi or Sasuke died I'd be unhappy, angry with myself and at the reason for their death, but I'd get over it. And it wouldn't take a century for me to get over it.

I was distant from everyone because I didn't see myself as a proper existence.

It was why I hardly ever lost my temper. I'd distanced myself from my emotions, and thus humans, as soon as I realized where exactly I was.

In the end I hadn't changed much from that little boy who all of a sudden was born into a foreign land.

I clenched my fist in a mixture of irritation and sheer frustration, I hated who I was, in a way, but at the same time I wouldn't have it any other way. I just wished Fugaku wasn't in a state I could feel comfortable telling him what I was.

But I had, because we all knew he was going to die, and not even Tsunade could stop it.

XXXX

Fugaku grew worse fast, expiring 33 days after I had told him I was not from around here. I'd had other conversations with him since, but none as monumental as that.

Two days after his unfortunate, and rather sudden demise, we held the funeral. The entire clan attended, and even Hiruzen showed up.

Fugaku's body did not suffer the indignity of being cut apart and studied, not that I cared, a body was a body.

"Well Itachi, it looks like you'll be the man of the house." I commented to my nephew as we watched the coffin being lowered into the grave.

"I will try hard."

"Do you know why your father died?"

"He was wounded and had an illness."

"No. He was mortal, today, tomorrow, ten years hence, what does it matter? We are all as fleeting as the dust."

Itachi looked up at me, "It is for those we love that we live on, uncle."

"And they too are as short-lived. Itachi, I know you desire peace, that all mankind should live without killing each other. Madness. It cannot happen."

"But dreams are what push us forward, a mad goal that we do our very best to reach, even if complete success is impossible."

"A dream…" I felt like I was the child, and Itachi the uncle, I'd drifted so far from my idealistic side that all I had left was a dull realistic side. But I was too realistic, I had begun to simply write things off as realistically impossible, my training had slowed because of it.

I'd stopped improving, I' lost sight of whatever made me strong in the first place, and now I was like a zombie.

"Itachi, what's a good dream?"

"That is for you to find."

In the end, all of Fugaku's years couldn't grant him more wisdom than this scarcely pubescent boy. I smiled at that.

"My dream… I do not have one, but I have an ambition, to stop a certain plan. Itachi, let's get you to jonin, I have other students waiting." To stop that plan I'd need comrades, plentiful and strong.

I now regretted killing Rasa, but the past was the past. I needed to recruit people who could actually fight and had real potential. I needed to train people to the best of my ability. I needed to improve myself, more specifically, my skill at crafting.

To outfit an army with super-weapons was no small task, but it was a necessary one.

XXXX

I stepped up my efforts with Itachi, simultaneously getting a tutor in the art of blacksmithing, three of them actually. While it was expensive, I could afford to learn from three masters at once, using clones of course.

Under such massive effort my skill increased greatly, and while I'd never be a true master, I didn't have to be. Small quality issues in crafting could easily be more than made up with in seals.

My capacity to design mechanisms was already high, a result of my extensive puppetry work, and now they only became more complex.

Ideally, I'd get a fully functioning suit that any ninja could use, fully customizable. But that was a faraway dream, something for later.

Instead I focused on making an array of weapons and armors with scandalously powerful effects.

Like kunai that sucked chakra from whatever they were touching, any living thing that is, until they overloaded, thus exploding. Definitely to be used with gloves. Quite frankly, these were on the weak side, they took almost a full minute to overload, plenty of time to pull them out.

Itachi made jonin late in his twelfth year, and I then fully devoted myself to crafting.

Something nagged at me, telling me that something hadn't happened that should have. So, I reviewed the facts of the series, but couldn't place it.

I made myself a special sword, calling it Fuyu no Ken, literally meaning Sword of Winter, unimaginative; but fitting. Using chakra metal and a sealing matrix of my own invention, the sword would chill down to a frightening level when fed chakra, but not turn brittle. This blade was so cold when at maximum output that fresh blood froze instantly. Unfortunately, at this stage I had to use my metal hand to wield it.

My clones mass-produced single-shot rifles - a product I intended to improve upon - testing and recalibrating them for maximum utility. Another team of clones also made a sniper gun I dubbed 'The Cannon' because of its thick barrel. This discrepancy was no object however, since I could simply load it into a scroll and make it virtually weightless. The Cannon was to be used with either the Sharingan or by fixing a telescope to its barrel. Crude I'll admit, but sniper sights didn't exist here, and I hadn't been an arms dealer or manufacturer _before_.

I 'recruited' missing ninja when I encountered them, and now had a little over a hundred at my beck and call. Most were far too weak to be of any real use, but there was the occasional red herring.

**XXXXX**

Mission Parameters: Eliminate hostiles in and around target village. Likely bandit-nukenin co-operation, ninja number likely somewhere from 3-6, estimates place their power levels as varied, from C to A.

Team to complete mission: Team Nanashi. Members: Uchiha Nanashi, S-rank.

Reward for completion: high-B to all team members.

Such read the primary information on my scroll, fairly normal stuff really. Ninja or bandits started using a village as their base of operations, attracted the other to them and drove off the regular patrol. Konoha then sends a stronger team to conquer.

That team of course, was me.

The journey to the target village was supremely uneventful, and I easily dropped rapidly from the sky into the middle of the village, surprising a bandit that was extorting some weak civilian.

"I would pour out rebuke on you for stealing, but it's not as fun as ignoring you." I stated as I rose up to my full height, having landed on a knee, a foot, and a palm.

"Who're you supposed to be, a Deva?" The bandit kicked backwards at the civilian as he turned to me.

"Now I'm a Buddhist demi-god, how flattering." I assessed the man, "Considering your mocking tone and overall manner, your family was Shinto."

"What of it?" He was wary now, correctly suspecting I was a ninja.

A man wearing light robes and a gentle blindfold appeared, "What is the trouble here?" His voice was unhurried and calm, but the light sweat on his skin betrayed his fear. Fear of me, intriguing.

"A blind ninja?" I asked aloud, loud enough for the newcomer to hear.

"Forgive me, honored master; this humble servant is indeed blind." He bowed gracefully in my direction.

"Your chakra senses must be very powerful, young warrior."

"Indeed, though blind from birth, I have always seen everything around me with this mind's-eye."

So, while his real eyes were dead, his chakra sense was so powerful it was no inconvenience. Still, his personality was a curiosity.

"What're you waiting for Ichizen? Get this guy!" The bandit crudely exploded, throwing in a good spatter of criminal language.

"I would rather be stranded on the moon for a thousand years than try such a thing." Ichizen replied coolly, as if he thought the bandit infinitely stupid.

He then turned back to me, "Does master require this village?"

"I have been hired to clear out the bandits."

"Oh. You do indeed carry a hitai-ate, but you do not wear it. Why?"

"I've never liked it." I was fully aware I'd totally failed to answer his question, but I didn't care.

The bandit finally finished making heads and tails of the situation and screamed, "Alarm! Intruder!" At the top of his lungs. In short order all was turmoil as bandits uproariously charged out of every hut and hovel.

"If this is a prank I'll cut your fingers off!" A small, wiry, bandit with better gear then the rest roared.

"No prank, thanks for coming," Unbeknownst to the party in question, the roads lifted high into the air behind the bandits.

"Ichizen, why haven't you-" The small one began to ask, then noticed that he was now in shadow, while seconds before the sun had beaten upon his back.

Before they could even turn around, the bandits were all crushed, only a quick-witted few escaping this initial attack.

The small bandit cursed profusely after his hair's-breadth escape from destruction, glaring in our direction.

I smiled thinly, a mocking smile, "It seems you survived." Whatever comebacks might have been uttered will never be known, as the bandits' heads all fell off.

"Now, Ichizen, are there any more ninja around? Do not lie."

"There is one, a girl I who I took under my wing; she is not a missing ninja, merely a trained civilian."

"Strange that you would keep her around such rough folk."

"Perhaps, but Choko handles herself quite well, even in such company."

"Tell me, Ichizen, why should I not behead you and your student?"

The brown-haired man paused in his step, a slight frown marring his face, "I believe we can be useful to you."

I looked him over, gauging his not un-impressive ability, "It's possible, I suppose." I commented, as if uncaring. Inside, however, I was quickly weighing the pros and cons, and making a plan.

Ichizen quickly led me to Choko, a budding young woman who looked to be fourteen, though I wasn't always right.

Unlike her master, Choko was by no means blind; though I could tell she was still at least proficient in his chakra sensing arts.

"Uchiha Nanashi, at your service," I introduced myself to the girl, she was above average in looks, raven hair that glinted blue and purple in the light adding certain attractiveness to her features.

She looked to her master for guidance, not wanting to cause both their deaths at my hand.

Ichizen, finally receiving confirmation as to my identity, mentally tallied up and prepared.

Not receiving any indicators from Ichizen, Choko improvised, "So, what do you want, Uchiha-sama?"

_Properly insolent for a girl her age_, I smiled weakly, "What do I want? I want you, Choko, to test a prototype of mine, after that… We'll see."

I pulled something that looked vaguely like a modern assault rifle out of one of my many seals. Designed with a 24-round straight clip, this gun's handle had no trigger, as it would have served no purpose.

I aimed the glorified barrel at the wall, and _Bang!_ A bullet careened through it, the special explosive tag, designed to let out its energy over a short amount of time, rather than instantaneously, doing its work expertly.

As I'd found when I first started making guns: Big, instant, explosion = bad. Barrel exploding bad.

I handed her the unfamiliar weapon, showing her the proper way to hold it, and instructing her in the rather simple firing mechanism. Point, and then simply activate the explosive with chakra.

The clip depleted rapidly as Choko warmed up to the rifle, the recoil was a slight problem on her smaller frame, but it was acceptable.

As soon she emptied the clip I collected the hollow bullets from the ground, salvaging the ones that were in any shape to be salvaged. Those buggers were a serious pain to make. It was why I didn't really like this particular prototype; the whole thing was too much of a pain to deal with.

Some explanation may be required here, the 'hollow bullets' had a seal-reinforced head and were hollow, made just big enough to contain the tags they were propelled by.

I brought the next one, the Mk 1 Seal; _not _named this because it was to be used in aquatic operations, but because it operated almost exclusively on seals. Everything was automatic once you pulled the trigger, yes, this one had a trigger.

With virtually infinite ammo and little maintenance, this could be called my most impressive work. It boasted an 18th century rifle bullet, designed by some French guy, I think. Anyway, no casing, the bullet and explosive tag were both totally used up in the firing process, allowing for a simple barrel, stock, and trigger.

When pulled, the trigger activated the firing sequence. First, it shot a burst of chakra, sucked from the surroundings, at the explosive tag. After an extremely brief moment, it shot two more surges, to activate the seals which held the tags and bullets, respectively.

Sadly, the current design didn't support full-auto, so keeping the trigger pulled wouldn't do a thing. As a result, it was slower than a modern automatic, but still the fastest out of all my current single-shot models. It made it less effective in a close-range shoot-em-up, but more advantageous to a doujutsu wielder, since they could achieve great accuracy with the weapon.

"While the previous prototype is more understandable to plebian minds, this one's supernatural behavior makes it better in almost every way. First, there's the safety concerns, the previous model's bullets could be activated, by anyone mind you, while still in the clip, a disaster."

"Secondly, while reloading the Seal takes a very long time, it almost never has to be done, since one can load almost unlimited stores into the seals it uses."

"Thirdly, even a civilian can fire the Seal, making it the true equalizer. Tyranny will always abound while the tyrants are untouchable, but give a man a Seal and he can bring down despots, villains, ronin, and even ninja."

The two looked at the Seal with respect, and I laughed, "That's the sales pitch side of it. In reality, the tyrants will get _way _more Seals, if they were put on the market, then any hero ever could. It'd just make bandits and chakra-blind overlords that much more dangerous, and ninja villages wouldn't risk their soldiers' lives over it for anything short of a king's ransom. This world would only turn that much more violent and terrible, and no man would dare to uphold the law in the face of such power."

Ichizen nodded, "You are indeed wise, but if you have already decided such, why did you make such weapons in the first place?"

"I'm going to need it someday, and I don't need an army of many to use them." I created dozens of shadow clones, we all spoke in unison, "I only need an army of one."

"I see… but then why reveal this to us?" Ichizen asked, brows furrowed.

"I wanted to see if it was really possible for a normal person to use these, and you have given me my answer. It is."

"So, what now, you kill us?" Choko asked nonchalantly.

In my younger years, I would have respected this, but not now, not anymore, "No, I think not. Ichizen," I turned to him, "You have shown intelligence in not picking a fight with me, an intelligence that I can respect. Self-preservation comes before honor and duty, pragmatism before heroism; you have shown you understand this."

He nodded in thanks, well aware I wasn't letting him live because he'd stroked my ego, but because I felt he knew how to make sure he lived.

Usually I would now draw loyalty seals on them, binding them to my will, but I felt like earning it here.

"Send messages to me when you will," I gave him my address in Tanzaku Gai, under a false identity of course.

"Is that all?" Ichizen knew this was too easy, and was suspicious.

"I need not only minions, Ichizen; I also need allies, intelligent beings who can help. Your ability to sense all around you will prove useful; insure you pass it on well."

"Of course," He acquiesced readily to this, having already intended as much.

"And when you feel you do not get enough out of this, let me know, and I will correct it."

"A threat?"

I smiled, "No, I don't ask you to work for free. Don't take advantage of this though."

"You are very generous, what kinds of information are you interested in?"

As expected, he'd read between the lines like the professional he was, "S-ranked ninja travelling in pairs would be at the top of the list. Beyond that, try to keep vaguely aware of what Orochimaru-sensei is up to."

Vaguely aware was the best anyone could do with Orochimaru, Konoha and Akatsuki both, though keeping close watch, unable to discover exactly where all his bases were.

On that note, the pale-faced punk hadn't fed me the information on Akatsuki I'd asked him for, had he betrayed me, or had the message failed to come? Though small, there was a chance that my prodding had stopped him from joining altogether.

Betrayed most likely, in which case I'd pay him back seven-fold, I didn't take kindly to that sort of thing.

My work here was done, the clones I'd had scout the area around the village had eliminated the pickets so all the bandits were dead, and I'd eliminated the hostile ninja, they were now friends.

I almost laughed at my way of fully completing the mission, but not really how I'd been intended to.

The villagers had all ran into their pathetic and terribly unsafe homes once the fighting began, so there were no witnesses of my collaboration. All I had to do was get five signatures from the villagers, something simple.

After procuring the required writing, I grabbed Ichizen and Choko and we took off, flying far away from that place.

XXXX

I frowned as I stood in front of the Hokage's office, waiting for his aide to usher me as I wondered exactly what I was doing here. It was still early in the morning, so it was most likely urgent.

Could it be about my private forces? Not likely, there had never been any witnesses, unless perhaps Jiraiya himself had been spying on me.

An S-rank mission just for me? Not unlikely.

Could be diplomacy, reminding the other side of Konoha's strength would be incomparably easy if I went.

"Hokage-sama will see you now."

I nodded, going in. The Hokage was alone, and was unoccupied except for his observation of me.

"You wanted to see me, Hokage-sama?"

"Yes. I was wondering if you wanted another crack at your old sensei."

My eyes widened suitably, nothing like this had ever happened in canon as far as I was aware, but then again, Sakumo wasn't supposed to be wearing that hat.

"Alone?" My tone was almost wishful, yes; I wanted to demand his explanation for not relaying to me information on Akatsuki.

"No, Jiraiya-sama along with Tsunade-hime and her apprentice will be going as well. It's the best team we can make if we want no casualties."

"True. I assume Orochimaru has subordinates, a defensive position, or comrades if you're sending so many?"

"Perceptive as always, an unknown individual wearing the same cloak," He handed me an artist's rendition of the Akatsuki cloak, "Was seen with him. Not much is known about this organization beyond its name, Akatsuki, that uniform, and the fact that all members are S-rank, no exceptions."

Impressive work Jiraiya, to think you actually knew _so _much a few years before the beginning of _Naruto_.

"2-rusty S-ranks, an A-rank, and myself against two modern S-ranks… The odds are within acceptable parameters, I shall go."

"Excellent, leave immediately, Jiraiya-sama is in charge." He looked me in the eye significantly, "Orochimaru has a penchant for slipping away, don't let that happen. If possible, bring him back alive; but under no circumstances is this to take precedence over the lives of anyone on the team."

"I hear and obey, may our weapons be true." I saluted, receiving the return salute from Sakumo.

After exiting the Hokage's office, I made my way to Jiraiya, my CO for the time being. The idea of working under his perverseness wasn't delightful, but he'd earned his position, despite his useless _pursuits_.

Tsunade was making a huge fuss about the whole thing when I arrived, Jiraiya vainly attempting to settle her down and Shizune standing off to the side, having already given up.

"Greetings, Senju-san, Shizune, Jiraiya-taicho," I purposefully ignored the heated debate about whether Tsunade was or was not obliged to work in the field.

As expected, ignoring buffoons grant's you're their attention, Tsunade turned to me, "_He's _coming, that Uchiha brat?" She queried irritably.

"My physical age now exceeds thirty, but despite the inaccuracy of your labeling, I do not mind." I answered with a smile.

"Sure you don't, you're just too prideful to admit your pride was damaged, you Uchiha crack me up."

I looked her over critically, "I must confess, I see no evidence to substantiate your claim; physically or emotionally."

All I got was an angry glare. Really, however fleeting, that was amusing.

Jiraiya cleared his throat, garnering the attention he so craved, "Now that we're all gathered, _as a team_, we can start acting like one. Nanashi, you're a field ninja, I assume you're triple checked and ready, yes?"

"Yes."

Jiraiya nodded, appreciating the shortness of my response.

"I'm ready," Tsunade replied adding a not-so-flattering moniker under her breath.

It'd been a long time for both Shizune and her master, but both were still functioning and fully trained jonin, it'd be a restful day for the wicked before they forgot to prepare properly.

"My gear is fully prepped." Shizune added in, earning a grunt of approval from Jiraiya.

"Excellent, there's plenty of daylight left, so let's head off." Yes, plenty of daylight left on the very day I was made aware this was even happening, the secrecy surrounding this mission was high, of that there was no doubt. Rather annoying, although admittedly intelligent, that they didn't tell me beforehand, I might have crafted something special.

I henged into the form of an ANBU operative with a blank mask as we set off, making a shadow clone who did the same.

"Why the deception?" Jiraiya asked, not turning back.

"While I might be the best bait possible to lure out Orochimaru, he would be afraid to face all four of us at once. At the same time, he has little to no respect for faceless Anbu."

Jiraiya conceded the point, but was yet to be convinced, "Your chakra signature will still tell the tale."

I would have smiled, could anyone have seen it, "My talents are wide, Jiraiya-sama, and my blessings vast, see for yourself."

He slowed slightly as he felt the essence of chakra around him, my own confusing him. I came across as a strongly fire-natured adult but my clone passed as having weak affinities for water and lightning.

Jiraiya wasn't long consternated, for high-level ninja; this sort of deception wasn't uncommon.

"I'm surprised you have the confidence to be able keep this up for so long." But, as anyone would know, maintaining such a façade for more than a few hours was extremely taxing. Even for me it was a drain, though not a large one.

"It is of no concern; if I run low on chakra, I can simply recharge it."

No one there had the childish impudence to inquire further, as no ninja ever gave out all his secrets, and this was clearly a valuable one.

By the time we reached our stopping point, I'd already 'recharged' several times, this was the practice of sucking your own chakra back in from an object that held it. In my case, I had plenty of large metal rods storing my chakra in scrolls.

Reclaiming chakra in this way was certainly unconventional. It was also sorely inefficient, with only about two thirds of the chakra used to charge the rod actually reclaimed.

Nevertheless, being able to use chakra draining abilities for very extended periods of time was worth the extra effort.

I doubted I had anywhere near enough for how long our quest would take, namely, forever. Orochimaru had plenty of spies in Konoha, and would know of our approach long before we arrived. The only way we could catch him was if his arrogance led him to believe he could win.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't be complete arrogance, and I didn't even want him imprisoned or even killed. I wanted him alive and free, allied with me. It would be an uneasy alliance to be sure, with the threat of his betrayal ever surrounding me, but worth it.

Konoha would never support some of my shadier stuff, and I'd technically already committed treason several times. I was not so foolish as to believe no one would ever know. Jiraiya probably already suspected.

Indeed perhaps this mission was a farce, perhaps we only left Konoha to save it from the destruction bringing me in would entail.

**XXX**

**Authors Note: I'm alive, believe it! Finally got this chapter out. If it seems slightly incongruous, please forgive me, it was written across several months.**

**Also, my proofreader has moved out to college, so I'll be just reading over my own work, like I did for this chapter, in the future. If quality drops, let me know and I'll step up my efforts.**

**As always, reviews are welcome, even a flame or three about how long it took.**

**No idea when the next chapter will be ready, hopefully it won't quite so long in the making as this one.**


	28. Chapter 28, Conclusion

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. **

**For those of you who've already read chapter 28, just scroll down to the bottom.**

**As a Ninja, 28****th**** chapter.**

Despite my very real concerns, I did not die, nor was I attacked by my comrades. I suppose that was rather fortunate, as killing Shizune would have given me some slight dissatisfaction.

The march progressed quickly, and with very little delay, as almost all culinary needs were met by yours truly. Therefore, a mere three days after our initial departure, we found our target. It was to be expected - that we found him as we did- but my team seemed quite surprised. For, indeed, it would be entirely more factual to state that Orochimaru found us.

My clone, too busy thinking, failed to dodge as a razor-sharp kunai obliterated it, exposing its true nature in a puff of smoke.

"Oh? Bad luck." Chuckles came from behind us.

"Orochimaru!" Shizune yelled as she spun around and took in the form of our attacker.

Playing my part as an Anbu, I took to the trees hastily. Leaving Tsunade, her apprentice, Jiraiya, and of course Orochimaru in the clearing.

"Orochimaru! Today is the day you pay for your crimes!" Jiraiya yelled rashly, charging forward with a Rasengan. I almost slapped my forehead, why didn't the idiot at least summon his toads _first_?

Tsunade at least had a bit more intelligence, summoning two small slugs while Shizune prepared something. Useless poison most likely, Orochimaru was far too paranoid to not have virtual immunity to every concoction known to man, and then some.

Tsunade now joined the fight, throwing punches that would make most quake in terror. For Orochimaru, however, they were a joke. Nonetheless, as expected of two Sannin, Jiraiya and Tsunade coordinated extremely well.

I replaced myself with a clone, heading underground.

Just as Orochimaru dodged another of Tsunade's blows, my hands popped out of the ground, grabbing Orochimaru's ankles. But, before I could pull him under, the snake slipped from my grasp, running afoul of my clone's SEFs as he did so.

I dropped the henge and chakra-disguise as I leapt out of the ground, smiling as my master bled, if only a little, from his wounds.

"I should have known they'd send you, Nanashi-kun."

"Yes, you should have. Especially since you knew I left the village at the same time."

"But the chakra… you always did invent new tricks, my student."

"I'm not as old a dog as you, after-all."

Orochimaru sneered at me, summoning snakes, "I'm afraid we'll have to cut this little reunion short." He activated shunshin, fleeing into the woods.

But by no means had the poor little sucker escaped, as he soon discovered. Leaving my team to the snakes I charged after my sensei, knowing the clones I'd left couldn't hold him off forever.

As expected, my nigh-gearless copies weren't faring well with the pale-faced Sannin. Of course, with my arrival, their sacrifice had served its purpose.

Orochimaru snarled as I came into the fight, my identity as the primary clearly shown by my floating form.

"Now, now, Orochimaru, you should have prepared for at least this much." I mocked him as my clones kept the fellow occupied. In return, Orochimaru hurled insults.

I took out The Cannon, giving it to a clone as I unsealed my sand, "Shall we get a bit serious, or will you kindly explain why you betrayed my trust?"

"What trust? You thought to use me as some pawn, I am not a pawn!"

"Pride still hurt by that defeat, eh? Perhaps a little humility will do you good!" I leapt forward, the Sword of Winter in hand, sand trailing behind me.

Orochimaru kept up well, his body reinforcements causing any minor attacks to become useless. On the other hand, while weaker by a bit, my armor achieved the same result.

The fight was fought at enormous speeds, but we both knew the truth. Jiraiya and Tsunade would arrive very soon. And when they did, this balance would be tipped in my favor.

"You see, master, I have not increased in power as much as you since our last meeting, but I haven't fallen behind you."

Orochimaru wasn't an idiot, he knew he needed to either escape or pull off one of his forbidden jutsu, too bad for him they all took forever to activate.

"No matter, I also didn't come alone." Orochimaru's voice betrayed anger, no doubt his pride was hurt that he needed help, but the self-preservation instinct within him was strong.

In true _Naruto _fashion, both my reinforcements and Orochimaru's arrived at the same time.

I didn't recognize the form of Orochimaru's helper, but I knew exactly who he was, "Sasori-sama, a true pleasure to meet you."

Jiraiya and Tsunade frowned, but Shizune was younger and not so controlled, "Akasuna no Sasori is dead!"

In several senses, this was true, but the mind and more importantly the knowledge within his body was certainly the real thing.

Sasori's covering, H-something, tilted his head, "So you know of me." He turned to Orochimaru, "We're leaving."

"Ah, ah, but I think you might be interested in a little spar with my art. How about it?" I unsealed numerous puppet at once, taking control of them all myself.

"Orochimaru here already told me you could use puppets, outdated rotting things you use."

"So harsh, Sasori-sama, so harsh. Nevertheless, Orochimaru isn't going anywhere."

My clone acted at this point, firing his powerful gun right into Sasori's gut. The puppet that ought to have protected his frame was easily blasted through, pieces of wood flying as the bullet exited the back.

It wasn't called The Cannon just for size you know.

Fortunately for the legendary puppet master, any vitals he still had were missed by the shot, although one or two of his gadgets might have been damaged.

"So you managed to complete your little project after-all." Orochimaru commented, my clone already 'dead'.

Ah yes, I suppose I had shared a bit of my aspirations with the man.

"But your mistake was giving me time. Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" The forest was flattened in an instant as the purple figure of Manda appeared.

The snake hissed; jaws open and ready to strike.

"Be glad you informed me you would require my power, Orochimaru. I demand only ten humans in exchange for killing thesse aggressssorss."

"Just kill them, Manda." Orochimaru was in no mood to banter with a lesser creature.

The snake would have grinned if it weren't busy snapping its jaws over my previous location.

"You Sannin rely on your summons far too much, in my opinion." I commented dryly as both Gamabunta and Katsuyu appeared.

"I said we're leaving." Sasori angrily told Orochimaru off for escalating the conflict further and attempted to leave.

"Come now Sasori-kun, I doubt leader-sama would mind if we finished off the best of Konoha."

Whatever facial reaction Sasori might have indulged in had he been able was irrelevant. Though I do suppose it would be one of agreement, as he joined the fight.

Sasori immediately brought the big guns, the dead form of the Sandaime Kazekage just as strong as ever. Well, perhaps a little worse.

I nearly paled as I realized just what the fearsome Kage's power was. I was _not _interested in losing more of my arm.

It was time to decide. To defect, or to strive onward?

Well, the power over metal would certainly disable my more modern equipment. As for my arm, I could merely deploy chakra in high concentrations around it to prevent any hostile actions.

"It seems I was wise to bring out my puppets that have no metallic parts." I frowned, "Everyone, please dispose of anything magnetic, the 3rd Kazekage is here!"

Jiraiya and the rest were puzzled, not yet knowing of the necromancy, but complied.

"Time to get a little serious," I floated forward, unsealing my sand and commanding waves of dirt and chakra to attack Sasori and his prize puppet.

Said puppet blew aside or blocked all the attacks with his own, iron, sand. It was annoying to face what I, and all others, considered to be my signature ability.

But Fugaku had already imparted in me the knowledge on how to beat such a sand user; the Kazekage would be no challenge. The scorpion tail on Sasori's protective puppet came out as one of my own puppets attacked, the Kazekage far too occupied to offer help.

Indeed, the superior quantity of my sand was clearly evident, and even the incisive Sasori couldn't solve the problem. Any counter-attacks were prevented by my own sand, while Orochimaru and his summons were in no position to offer aid.

It appeared to be team Konoha's win, but I smelled a rat.

Predictably, just as the third Kazekage was about to be crushed under my vigorous assault, trees sprouted from the ground and assailed me. Orochimaru really had been working hard.

"Hashirama. As always, the constant stream of annoying jutsu," I commented to no one in particular, then I turned to my opponent, Sasori, "We'll have to wrap things up pretty quickly, I'm afraid Jiraiya doesn't have the tools to win now."

Sasori popped out of his somewhat damaged encasement, finding its mobility and defense inadequate. He then proceeded to unseal several human puppets, "Your logic is flawed, Nanashi-san."

"I didn't say I was going to defeat your pitiful band of dead ninja, only that I would wrap up over here." I held not back in offensiveness, having already chosen which side I was on.

Sasori's face was wooden indeed as I made a couple dozen clones and armed them with various weapons and puppets.

"This will be plenty for you, Sasori-_sama_."

I smirked as I flew over to the battle with Orochimaru and his two minions.

Katsuyu was suppressing the Shodaime and Manda with her acid spray, while Gamabunta and Jiraiya handled Orochimaru himself. Tsunade and Shizune attacked whenever there was a good opening, but Hashirama's trees were keeping them on their toes.

To be arrogant, my arrival was about to change things.

I formed one more clone, sending it to the location of The Cannon and entrusting it with two rounds of very special ammunition, just in case.

After-all, only an idiot would bring only one of his trump cards.

…Where did I hear that before? Ah, Orochimaru.

Puzzling indeed, where was the Nidaime? Surely an extra human life was not too much of a price for a guaranteed victory. Not really guaranteed, but it would be in Orochimaru's mind.

It didn't matter. All I needed to do was make an opening.

The sword of winter came to life in my metal right hand, the cold it gave off so intense that if one looked past it their view would be distorted.

I kicked off thin air, charging Hashirama with a speed that was truly insufficient.

For in sooth, branches obstructed my way in massive quantities, such that cutting through them with a sword was impractical.

"Such ignorance!" I bared my fangs at the stoic Hashirama, and all around me sharp whips of chakra swirled with such speed and range that only by going underground could attacks reach me. The Shodaime immediately adopted this tactic, but it was too late.

Bursting forward with shunshin, I ran at the wood-bender, my chakra whips now gone.

It was at this point that with two great poofs both Gamabunta and Manda returned to their homes, although the battle still raged strongly.

Unsurprisingly, a wooden mesh block any assault I might otherwise have made, while more branches circled, threatening me from my rear.

I formed a cone-Rasengan, stabbing it forward and piercing the mesh as my own back was stabbed through by sticks.

The distinctive sound of a gun-shot rang out, and the bullet whistled right into Hashirama's gut, my body that should have blocked it already gone.

From the epicenter of Hashirama's gut the world turned black in a radius of two meters for just a moment. All that remained was that single bullet, falling now to the ground, and containing within it the most legendary of Hokages.

The wood that was not sealed within my ultimate technique was stiff and useless now.

"Impossible!" Orochimaru roared, his fight with Jiraiya going well for him, but paused for the moment.

I picked up the bullet, admiring the seal-work that adorned its entire body.

"Everything is a simple matter if you just seal it away, and anything can be sealed," I smiled sardonically at the outraged snake Sannin, "It won't last forever I'll admit, but at least a few minutes." Hashirama was no Kyuubi after-all, and the Ichibi was sealed in a teapot for a week.

"And believe me, a few minutes is more than enough to crush you."

Orochimaru spat angrily, sending poisonous powders and gases flying as he turned and ran, aiming for the security of anywhere but here.

I chuckled as I took off, my armament already sealed in a scroll, spreading my arms and going into full flight mode. Even with a high-speed movement technique there was no chance his running would surpass my flying.

Sure enough, I caught up in a few seconds. My face grew more serious as I formed thick earthen walls around Orochimaru, though the top remained open.

"If you had only provided me my due tribute, I wouldn't have to put you down now."

"Arrogant brat, as if I owe you anything."

"Oh, you do. I repaid my debts to you in full the moment I let you go, but the favors you owe me are still unsatisfied." I tilted my head to the side a bit, "And now I suppose they never will be."

Orochimaru grimaced slightly, knowing full well he was in a bad spot. He could try to tunnel out, but I was a master of Doton, making that plan extremely risky.

Fighting me was also dangerous, as I could simply collapse the impromptu prison, not to mention I had allies coming. Jumping out was the most ridiculous, as my speed, mobility, and lethality in air combat were unmatched.

In the end, Orochimaru chose a combination, launching numerous ninjutsu at and around me, hoping to keep me occupied as he fled underground.

It worked, much to my self-loathing. Orochimaru's prowess was by no means overrated, and I could not so simply catch him.

But, pride and humility aside, I was still better than he, and no amount of running could save him. Only a strong reinforce-

I tilted my head to the side as a Teppodama careened past me.

I smiled thinly, so the Nidaime was his escape plan. Not bad.

But too naïve! I swerved up in to the air, climbing above the effective range of most of Tobirama's ninjutsu. Sharingan active, I quickly located Orochimaru running at break-neck speed, heading towards Ame.

I dumped grenades as I followed, timing them to blow up in the Nidaime's face.

Just then a rush of air blew past me, and I glanced down quickly, fast enough to see a pale face coming at me. I attempted to dodge, but the adversary grabbed me successfully.

A palm flew towards my gut, purple chakra evidently employed on the finger tips. I hastily formed a barrier of chakra and simultaneously used lightning to shock my opponent.

It was insufficient, and the Gogyo Fuin was successfully planted on my gut, immediately resulting in my complete inability to use chakra.

"… I got careless, sensei." I didn't even bother trying to fight. Without chakra, I was dead if I tried.

Orochimaru shifted his body so that as we fell I would hit the ground first, shielding his body from impact. And very likely killing me in the process, unfortunately.

"Indeed." He finally replied.

"I'm-" *thud*

XXXX

"GUUUH!" I inhaled sharply as I awoke. I blinked twice, taking in the situation around me; Jiraiya was standing off to the side, looking unhappy.

Shizune and Tsunade were evidently responsible for my revival, as they were kneeling beside me.

I diverted chakra to my head to rid it of its aching.

"Thanks, Jiraiya-sama," He nodded gruffly, "Shizune-san, Tsunade-sama, thank you."

"Whatever."

"You're welcome."

Well, the capture mission failed spectacularly as far as Orochimaru was concerned. I looked over the memories from my shadow clones; it seemed Sasori wasn't so fortunate.

I grinned despite our technical failure; capturing one of the two people better at puppetry than me -and the superior between them no less- was no small gain. Even if hoping for his cooperation was silly.

"No losses on our side worth mentioning, so I'll call it a win."

"Sasori isn't small fry, but if you'd have paid attention we'd have them both." Jiraiya complained.

Well, he wasn't wrong; if I had used my head we'd have Orochimaru too. It was, without a doubt, my fault. Of course, shifting all the blame on me wasn't fair at all, as all three of these fries would be corpses without me.

Then again, without me being here the mission wouldn't have happened. It might be self-centered, but the truth is, I was the reason anything happened at all.

"I'll call in a favor, no worries, it won't happen next time."

**One Month Later**

"Ichizen, a pleasure, sorry to call on you for this, but it seems I need to learn your skill." I spoke quickly to my newest teacher in the arcane arts of chakra perception.

"The pleasure is mine. Are you sure calling me to Konoha was wise?"

"It's well within my purview as a fairly senior jonin to grant asylum to nuke-nin 'deemed to have useful knowledge or abilities'. Frankly 'abilities' was meant to refer to bloodlines without saying it explicitly, and 'knowledge' is spy-related stuff, but this ambiguity essentially grants carte blanche. Most importantly, I have Sakumo-sama's support."

"Then I look forward to teaching you my skill." As expected of Ichizen, he accepted quickly.

"Food and lodging are already prepared." It was amazing what a few clones could do in mere hours.

**~Five Years Later**

"…Team four: Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Nagamine Junko, your sensei will be Uchiha Nanashi-sama…"

The listings continued, until all graduates had been assigned a team and sensei.

I found the Kakashi method to be amusing and useful, so I let them sweat for an hour.

A solid barrier of chakra stopped Naruto's pitiful attempt to prank me, and I walked in regally.

My eyes were bandaged, so any neck movements were unnecessary, as such, I addressed my students facing the wall.

"My eyes are covered, why?" I asked abruptly.

"Because you're blind," Naruto guessed first. The fool should have known better, that would have made every front page for miles.

"Because your eyes are valuable?" Junko hazarded.

"Because you're an arrogant ass," Sasuke stated, with a tone that indicated he was utterly convinced, and any rebukes would fall on deaf ears.

I nodded, satisfied, "Good, you've all given plausible answers, meaning there is hope. Meet me on the roof."

Without so much as a puff of smoke, I disappeared.

The unlikely trio looked at each other for a moment, before Sasuke muttered, "Showoff," under his breath and headed out.

My eyes were not bandaged anymore by the time my prospective students arrived.

"Welcome to the roof of the Ninja Academy, you did well to assume this was the roof I meant, but that could have been a dangerous assumption. Never let lose sight of that, and never become too used to the routine. Now, introductions, I'll go first. I am called Uchiha Nanashi, I have a dream for the future I don't feel like saying, an ambition you wouldn't understand, and I like learning." I glanced over to Naruto, who happened to be on the far left.

He took the hint with glee, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be the best ninja ever!" Some things never change it seems, how reassuring. "My dream is to be Hokage, my ambition is to be Hokage, and I'd like to be Hokage!" …It sounded retarded, but it was actually quite smart, coming off as an idiot, that could just be a ploy.

This could be an AU Naruto. Better watch him closely.

"I am Nagamine Junko, my dream is to live safely, and I'd like to have a family someday." Conservative, unambitious, joined the Academy only because she had chakra and just wants to live happily. Useless, really, when it comes to fighting Madara.

My nephew now had his turn, "Uchiha Sasuke, my dream is for my clan to prosper, my ambition is to surpass Itachi, and I like proving to idiots just how much better I am."

Arrogant, confident, and having no respect for others, definitely a purebred Uchiha. He was also clearly taking a jab at Naruto, though whether the boy in question knew that or not was beyond me.

"Now for your test," I smiled at them, waiting for some poor fool to bite.

"Another test?" Naruto blurted, somewhere between eager and annoyed. I suppose at this juncture I should reveal the truth, Sasuke was the top graduate, and beneath him was Naruto, Junko being the dead last. It's really amazing what a mom can do for a boy.

"Of course, around 40% of students get sent packing, right on back to the Academy. Or, if they are too old for that, they get shipped to the genin corps. No sensei, just books, patrols, and D-class missions until they hit chunin. Luckily, you guys aren't so old as to receive that fate."

Junko sighed in relief, after-all, being dead last didn't exactly build confidence. In addition, all kids are natural-born bullies, so it would be no surprise to hear she'd had her share of foul treatment.

To be honest though, being bullied resulted in a better attitude than Sasuke had. Constantly fawned over and praised to the skies, and with real talent to boot, he had become exceedingly arrogant. To add to that, he'd been held back for years at my request, not even getting the chance to try out for graduation until now. Thus, it came as no surprise that the kid hated me to no end.

Well, humbling him wouldn't be so hard. By establishing an 'ask and receive' system he'd start losing ground to Junko and Naruto, until his superiority complex forced him to come crawling. That was the plan anyway.

In the end, just like in _Naruto_ this team's largest struggle would be teamwork. In my opinion though, they didn't have to be friends, or even work well together, just so long as they didn't let each other die.

Obviously, and unfortunately, they weren't professionals yet. Thus, just saying that wouldn't do anything, and eventually one of them would die.

"Training ground six sounds good, be there in an hour."

X

I stood by at the designated location, waiting with the humanoid figure next to me for the children to arrive.

Naruto arrived first, amply decked out in gear, and looking ready as all get-out despite having worked hard to pass the Academy test already today.

Junko arrived next, with nothing more than a pack of kunai and shuriken. Well, that's not quite right, she had appropriate clothing too.

Sasuke arrived last, fairly well covered in explosive notes, storage scrolls, and other seals. All of them gifts from me to him across his many birthdays.

It was to be expected. He had peered into the abyss that was my power enough to know that my test would be hard.

"First, shake hands and say 'Please treat me well' to each other." First off, direct any hatred about this team towards me, and add a commiseration factor. Teamwork starts with mutual feelings, ya know? Well, this was fated to make them hate each other too, but that could also be useful.

"What on the Elemental Continent for!?" Naruto demanded.

"If you refuse to do this very easy thing for me, how can you be trusted to do very hard things for my village?" Second, appeal to their patriotism, forcing them to acknowledge just how petty they are. And whenever they start to lose unity, perhaps these words will stick and they'll ask one another, 'Isn't it an easy thing to smile and get along?'

"Oh," I continued with an evil grin, "And since you didn't do it right away, kowtow to each other instead of shaking hands." Third, punishment for disobedience, if I tell you to do something as harmless as shake hands and instead you ask questions, obviously something bad has to happen.

"And if you refuse or delay for more than a minute, I'll be relieving you of those headbands."

They looked at each other, imagining in their little minds the act of dogeza.

Sasuke and Naruto had received training on the proper form, but neither had actually used it. Junko was, as all children her age, aware of what exactly it entailed. And there was no doubt it entailed embarrassment.

Naruto was, surprisingly enough, the first to bend the knee, "Please treat me well." He prostrated himself to Nagamine, "Please treat me well." Without getting off the ground he turned to Sasuke and did the same.

Junko followed, and just before the minute was up Sasuke also did so. Though the hateful glare he sent all of us was telling enough.

"Stage one passed with drooping colors!"

"""…"""

"Puns are life. Fear not, for there is only one more stage." I dramatically held up two little bells, "Whoever gets one of these passes." I handed the bells to the puppet beside me, and it accepted them with a bow.

"Please try hard." The puppet spoke up pleasantly, its voice quite high for its male silhouette. Actually, I was still working on AI, this was a little trick I learned a while ago, ventriloquism.

"Hai!" Junko yelled without thinking, then she looked at the clearly wooden puppet again, "It talked?"

"Of course I did, I'm a revolutionary new autonomous puppet!" The mouth piece moved to complete the illusion, and the gullible girl fell right for it.

"Really?" She asked, getting excited.

"No, idiot, it's just a puppet and ventriloquism." Sasuke burst the bubble, eyes rolling and fully projecting in his tone 'what kind of idiot would actually be tricked?'

"Begin! Come all together, come alone, come an hour later, but you need a bell to pass!" I called to my would-be students. The puppet attached the bells to its breast as I spoke.

Naruto came right for the bells, his thrown shuriken aimed for its joints, and a kunai in his left hand.

The puppet simply took the kunai blow right in the arm, dodging the shuriken by just enough so that its joints would not be clogged.

"Your opponent is not human, it feels no pain."

Naruto's right hand stretched out for a bell anyway, only for it to be caught by the puppet, which then proceeded to squeeze.

Naruto immediately kicked off the puppet, sending it and him to the ground, but now separate.

"You would have seriously broken my wrist!" The blond accused, pointing at me.

"Master bears no fault in this; I was the one breaking your wrist!" The puppet got up quickly and defended me, lol.

"That's not funny." Naruto sighed, defeated, and sat down.

"Is it fine to be sitting down with your enemy right here?"

"I'll take my chances." In real combat it would be incredibly stupid, but as I wasn't going to attack him, I could only praise his intelligence.

I closed my eyes, spreading out my chakra sense, honed for years under the expert tutelage of Ichizen. While the 360 degree vision was inferior to the Byakugan's as it only saw chakra, and also couldn't observe tenketsu, it lacked the characteristic blind spot.

Sasuke was lurking in a tree, trying to devise a way to beat the puppet. But as he had no guarantee that I wouldn't interfere myself he kept hesitating.

This in and of itself was a hint at the answer to the test; the enemy is hard to beat because there are two. Oh. It didn't take a genius to figure out the intended answer, did it?

Sasuke's face no doubt twisted with displeasure as he saw the answer. His pride, however, was too great for him to ask for help from his rival, or the dobe. And thus he lurked still, not knowing the shadow clone technique, and therefore without the requisite power to get a bell.

Junko was on the ground, poorly hidden by some bushes, trying to devise a way to win. Pointless. She had entirely insufficient information.

"Master, these three seem useless; shouldn't we just fail them and go?" The puppet 'asked'.

"Hnn," I looked at my watch, "Give them a little longer, even underdogs like these guys deserve a chance."

Kunai loaded with explosive tags flew immediately from Sasuke, landing all around the puppet and exploding as it curled into a ball.

The black haired boy ran over, additional tags ready, and shuriken were sent flying at the chakra strings that allowed me to control the puppet. As expected of the Sharingan.

But way too naïve. I lazily adjusted the position of the strings, and the shuriken flew harmlessly by. Sasuke's inevitable melee assault would be pointless, the puppet being both quicker and stronger.

Or at least it was supposed to be. Unfortunately, the foolhardy explosive tags had done their work, and the left leg and been blown off.

Too bad for Sasuke, it didn't last. The puppet left behind its lower body, a new one appearing as it crawled away from the old. And all of this happened so fast that Sasuke couldn't get a bell in time.

In the fast-paced taijutsu engagement that followed, Sasuke was defeated.

"You should have launched your attack a little later, who knows, if you'd hustled maybe you'd have gotten a bell." I mocked the defeated lad, who was now held securely on the ground by my puppet.

He just grinned up at me.

"Haaaaaa!" Nagamine roared as she came charging as fast as her legs could carry her, obviously aiming for a bell.

In response I had the puppet pick up Sasuke, aiming to throw him at our fresh assailant. But as it reared back to hurl my nephew a hand came from behind, snatching both bells.

"How's that?!" Naruto boasted, tinkling the bells.

The puppet set Sasuke down on his feet and I approached the trio, facing the three who had quite naturally formed a group.

Ah, my little students, how proud I am. Still, we've got to go through the formalities, "Well, you have two bells, will you keep both, or give one away?"

"Neither." Naruto responded with a smile, throwing the bells out to his teammates, "Now we all pass, I got the bells, and both of them have one." As I would hope of one going to be taught by me, always look for loopholes in the terminology.

"Yes indeed. So, regale me with your brave tale of teamwork."

Sasuke now took the role of spokesperson, "I already knew about the second test. As soon as I heard that you would be our sensei, I knew that it would involve something less than straightforward. And you gave us plenty of time to think."

A whole hour is indeed a lot.

"I figured it out with the hint of time. You gave us time to let us talk and get to know each other. Teamwork was also the thing that would be clearly the most difficult for us. _The_ number one, a useless number two who thinks he's better, and the dobe." Nothing more need be said on the note of dobe I see, Sasuke.

"So we came up with a rough plan, and it worked perfectly."

Impressive, Sasuke understood from hint number one what the goal was, and executed. And to presuppose the content of the test so accurately that he could come up with an effective modus operand was certainly excellent.

I smiled again, "I hereby welcome Uzumaki Naruto, Nagamine Junko, and Uchiha Sasuke to team Nanashi. May we leave all other rookies in the dust."

"Alright!" Naruto cheered, Junko just sighed in relief, and Sasuke grinned smugly.

I could tell this would be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. But that is a story for another time.

XXXX

**Authors Note: I decided to end my story here; I'll pick it up again if I feel like it ever.**


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